Twice-Cooked Pork Belly with Chili and Leeks

*Post by Angela.

One of the best things about being friends with food bloggers is that it makes swapping recipes so much easier. The other day I was trying to come up with an exciting use for the pork belly I had in my fridge, and I immediately thought of Evan over at The Carnivore and the Vegetarian, who loves pork belly just as much as we do. I just knew he'd have something for me, and I was right - I saw this recipe mimicking a dish he had at Szechuan Gourmet in New York and I just had to have it. And not only did Evan give me a recipe combining some of my most favorite ingredients (pork belly, leeks, and chilies), but he was also nice enough to say "of course!" when I asked if I could post it.

  

List of ingredients (I doubled the recipe so that we would have leftovers):

• 2 lbs pork belly
• 2 medium leeks
• 2 red bell peppers
• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• 3 tbsp Szechuan chili sauce
• 4 cloves garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dry sherry
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• Sesame oil for drizzling
• Cooked white rice

First, I put the pork belly in a pot, covered it with water, brought it to a boil, then lowered the heat and simmered for about 20 minutes.

 

As the meat was simmering, I combined the chili sauce and the garlic cloves in the food processor and pulsed until the two ingredients were combined.

 

I drained the meat, patted it dry, then seared the fat side of the meat in a pan over medium high heat (with just a touch of oil) for just a couple of minutes, until a nice crust had formed. Then I put the meat in the fridge to cool for about 15-20 minutes.

 

In the meantime, I trimmed the leeks, sliced them very thin cross-wise, and gave them a good rinse. I also cut the bell peppers into 1" pieces.

 

Once the meat was cool, I cut it into thin slices. Heh, doesn't the photo make it look like I had miles of sliced pork belly? Mmmmm.

 

I heated the 2 tbsp of peanut oil in a pan over high heat, and cooked the pork belly slices for about 5 minutes, until they started to brown. Then I added the leeks and bell peppers, cooked a couple of minutes, and added the hoisin sauce, vinegar, sherry, soy sauce, and chili-garlic combination. I tossed the ingredients until well-combined, then cooked another 3-5 minutes until done.

 

This was just delicious served over white rice - the unctuousness of the pork belly, the brightness and crispness of the peppers and leeks,  and the tangy/sweet/spicy/salty punch from the sauce. So, thanks to Evan for the wonderful recipe!

Comments

[Evan]

Looks delicious! I have some more pork in the freezer and after i'm back from DC im going to do it this way, by searing. I think it would be awesome if i had a wok, but alas, I don't.