Mangalitsa Belly Braised In Soy Sauce
By: Kavin Du
Published: Monday, November 30, 2009 - 4:02pm

Ingredients




3 quarts Dark Soy Sauce Based Braising Liquid (see recipe)
4 pounds mangalitsa pork belly

Preparation

1 Cut pork belly piece into 3 inch by 3 inch cube.  Place pork belly pieces in casserole. Add water until the bellies are covered all the way by the braising liquid. Take out the belly pieces and bring the liquid to a boil. let the braising liquid cool to 180F. Place the belly in the casserole with skin facing down. Weight down with pie weight if you have them. Place in oven for 24 hours. Check periodically to make sure braising liquid is between 160 to 170F. Make sure the liquid never falls below 140 at any time.

 2 After 24 hours you should see a layer of fat floating on top. Save them for stir fry or as topping for steamed rice or noodle with dried shrimp eggs. Remove the belly carefully from the pot. By now they should have shrunk quite a bit. Leave the belly to cool in the fridge overnight.

 3 When ready to serve, I sliced them in half inch slices and put them in microwave for 10 seconds. If you have reserve about the microwave, you can use a heat lamp as well. But since it contains little water, this is the best way to warm it up without disturbing much of it’s texture. At this point you should see the fat just starting to ooze out of the warm belly slice, giving it a nice shiny glaze. I served it with a bowl of steamed rice and Chinese mustard green.

About


I slowly took a bite into the piece. At first the soft and gelatinous skin give a tiny bit of resistance, before letting my teeth penetrate through to the warm soft flesh. The fat is silky smooth, with a much finer and delicate texture than any belly fat I have had. Just when I was savoring it the piece melted in my mouth into this intense liquid that was every bit as good as seared foie gras but without any of the organ aftertaste. It was heavenly. When I finished the belly pieces the rice is coated with the same flavor that reminds me of the two tiny pieces of heaven I just eaten.