Braised Pork Belly and Mustard: A Dish Conceived Online

What’s better than bacon? Well, arguably, pork belly is. Afterall, bacon is pork belly, and, at that, it’s just one specific method of cooking this fantastic meat. You can cook pork belly all sorts of way, and with any flavor you want!

This pork belly happens to be braised with plenty of stout and ginger. Garlic, molasses,cinnamon, anise, and orange are also added to the braising liquid, which, after the pork belly is fall-apart tender, is reduced to a thick, syrupy glaze. The liquid is reduced so far, in fact, that the stout adds a significant malt flavor to the final dish.

The other elements of this dish include braised mustard greens, potato and mustard puree, fresh whole grain mustard, caramelized garlic chips, and friend potato strands.

A close up of the layers of meat and fatty goodness in the braised pork belly.

This dish owes its conception to internet collaboration, and specifically Google Wave. Google Wave is a new form of internet communication. Instead of receiving hundreds of emails with CCs, hard to decode responses, and reading through and ever-growing list of replies, Google Wave is a hosted conversation. This means that one person can create a “wave” about a specific subject, in this case pork belly. Whoever is included in that wave can respond to any and every addition to the wave. The additions, responses, and corrections are displayed in a manner that makes it easy to follow the chronology and evolution of the conversation.

This pork belly dish was created in a collaborative conversation on Google Wave. It started with the simple request of “Let’s create a new dish.” Myself and a few other chef friends decided pork belly would be nice and we exchanged ideas on what flavors to use. It was eventually decided that mustard, potatoes (in some form), and braised greens would pair nicely with the fatty belly. I especially admire mustard with any pork product and wanted to feature it as a significant element in the final dish. One we knew the flavors, we could easily communicate what form each of them would take. I decided to add the garlic chips and fried potato strings for some crunchy bits of flavor and dramatic visuals.

Braised Pork Belly: Another example of how the internet can be one of the most powerful tools in the kitchen.

Suggested Wine Pairing: Alsatian gewürtztraminer

This stunning photograph was taken by Mike Boehmer.

Mike is a Chicago-based photographer and a regular contributor to The Windy Pixel. Please visit www.mikeboehmer.com for more fantastic photography!

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