It has been a busy past two
weeks. Meetings, eye examination, getting new spectacles, the horrific traffic
around Bandra Fair, the ‘sedition’ by Aseem Trivedi, the diesel price hike and
now the slew of reforms by the Government. Phew!
On to matters far less
important and much more enjoyable. Food.
Unless you are a Jain, Khandelwal
or Shah or Muslim or Jew, or to come to think of it living under a stone, you
must be reading that every expensive [frequented by Page 3 folks] restaurant in
Mumbai is serving Pork Belly. Hakkasan, Yauatcha, Table, Amadeus, the newly
opened Umane and Ellipsis all serve versions of Pork Belly. Pork Belly is a
cheap cut of meat which when cooked results in a delicious dish and a huge mark
up for the restaurant. No wonder every restaurant is selling Pork Belly.
Pork Belly is widely available
in Mumbai. Most cold stores [funny we call them Cold Storage here while they
are actually butchers] have Pork Belly. As I have said it’s cheap and very very
forgiving to cook. Pork Belly is a fatty cut of meat and slow cooking is the
only sensible way to cook this. The fat which renders keeps the meat really
tender. It is really simple to cook. I have given you a recipe for cooking Siu Youk Pork, the Chinese Crisp Pork Belly. You could also make the famous Red
Cooked Pork which is so delicious and so simple to cook.
We had a kilo of Pork Belly
which we wanted to cook. I did not want to make it in a Chinese/Oriental style
so I decided to trawl the Internet to get a suitable recipe. I came across one
from the peerless Gordon Ramsay. Looking at it, I realised it was simple,
required no tricky ingredients and was simple to make.
A quick visit to Pali Market
was required to buy a head of Celery, a single leek and some thyme. That was it
as far as exotic ingredients go. Yes, you do need some Madeira which is a sweet
wine. I find that the good old Vinicolas Port Wine is an excellent substitute
for Madeira. I normally have a bottle at home to cook with. Keeps for years and
costs next to nothing.
This is a very tasty dish.
Do try it.
Here is the recipe
Braised Pork Belly
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 kg Pork Belly, rind
removed and boned
Thyme
1 leek white and pale green
part finely sliced
2 Celery Stalks finely
chopped
1 Onion medium chopped
1 clove Garlic minced
2 Star Anise
2 Bay Leaf
50 ml light Soy Sauce
500 ml water
125 ml Madeira [Port wine
fine]
Method
Lay the belly down and
sprinkle with salt, pepper and Thyme. Next you roll the Belly like a Swiss Roll
or Patrel [Alu Wadi] and tie it with some string to prevent it from
unravelling.
Add a dash of oil to a tall
pot with a lid and quickly brown the rolled up pork belly. No need to cook it,
just get some colour on the outside.
Belly rolled, tied and browned |
Once it’s beautifully
browned remove it and add the chopped vegetable i.e. the Leek, Celery, Onion
and Garlic. Once the vegetables are softened add the Soya Sauce, Wine and
water. Add the meat, cover the pot and cook on a super low flame for 3 hours.
Super low flame is important; if it boils too furiously you will end up with a
very cloudy sauce.
The vegetables |
Pork, Vegetables and the liquids added ready to be placed in the oven |
Yes, 3 hours. If you have an
oven, pop the whole thing into and oven at 130 degrees Centigrade or 225
Fahrenheit for 3 hours.
Once done remove the Belly
and cool the sauce. Strain the sauce and place it in a pan to reduce to a nice
consistency. It should become slightly syrupy much like a cough syrup. Please
do not add any salt until you have reached the consistency you want or else the
sauce will become very salty as it reduces.
Once the Belly is cooled
slice it into thick slices, remove the string and fry the Belly slices in a pan
for a couple of minutes till they are Golden. Pour the sauce over and eat the
Belly with some Mashed Potato.
hi,
ReplyDeleteyour recipe looks mouthwatering! Where can i get some quality pork belly in mumbai? would be great if you can give me names of butchers :) thankss
Smita
Hi Smita
ReplyDeleteYou could get Pork Belly from:
1. Joseph Cold Storage at Shop No. 15, Gasper Enclave Building, St. John Road, Opposite Gold Gym, Bandra West Mumbai, Maharashtra 400050
Phone:022 2642 4261
2 Highland Cold Storage Shop No 1, Manhor Building, K W Chitale Path, Dadar West, Mumbai, - 400028 phone 24227509
3. Farm Products Shop No 1, Salvation Army Building , BEST Marg, Apollo Bunder, Opposite Diplomat Hotel , Behind Taj Mahal Hotel, Colaba, Mumbai, - 400001 phone 22840335, 65260335
Good luck
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