Category — Miscellaneous

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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Bacon has been a significant trend in all facets of the restaurant and cooking industry for the past few years. Everyone has their favorite bacon over-indulgence and bacon-mania has yet to reach its peak. Here are a few fun and almost disturbing (but still delicious) bacon-ventions:

Bacon Jam

Bacon cooked down and puréed with caramelized onions. Spread it on your morning toast. Buy it here.



Wild Turkey Bacon Sandwich

A clever play on words, this bacon sandwich is meant to peak the interests of, then severely let down, any veg-heads or pork-less eaters. Tip back the Wild Turkey and chow on this sandwich.



Bacon Floss

That’s right, we Americans have answered the age old question of “how can we incorporate bacon into dental hygeine?” Buy your bacon floss here.



Bacon USB Flash Drive

“BBQ Port:” Stay bacon-crazy with this flash drive. Other food-drives available here.



Baconnaise

“The Ultimate Bacon Flavored Spread”



The BA-K-47

The folks at This Is Freakin Ridiculous created this bacon-based AK-47. Although it won’t prevent burglaries, the BA-K-47 is effective against vegetarians and members of PETA



And of Course: The Bacon Explosion

No bacon list is complete without the ubiquitous Bacon Explosion: Two pounds of pork sausage and two pounds of bacon inter-woven, smoked, then slathered in BBQ sauce. Happy heart attack!

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I recently stumbled upon the fantastic food blog Fancy Fast Food. In each entry the author Erik, and occasionally guest authors, showcase their stunning fine-dining creations that are made from nothing but fast food. The picture above is “Seared Pollock Cake with Southwest Ramalan Sauce” made from one McDonald’s filet ‘o fish sandwich and one premium southwest salad.

“Honey Apple Glazed Christmas Holiday Ham” made from Burger King Quad Stackers and breakfast Croissanwiches

“Chick-sat-A:” Chicken satay made from various Chick Fil-A items

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Have a heart this Valentine’s day…literally. Perhaps the most uncommonly used organ meat, heart can be delicious when carefully prepared. Here are a few photos of heart dishes, along with links and recipes, from around the internet. So return that box of chocolates and grab a heart from your local butcher!

Grilled beef heart with basil vinaigrette, roasted tomatoes, and poblano-brie grits from foodtease.com.

Lamb’s heart sandwich with rocket and wild garlic mayonnaise from Jason Lowe at The Independent.

Russian chicken heart stew from Russia Now

Peruvian grilled veal heart from Piolyn Restaurant

Beef heart shepherd’s pie from The Worldwide Gourmet.

“Hearts of Palm” from Chicago’s Alinea. I thought I’d throw this option in for vegetarians!

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Here’s a video of the chefs at moto restaurant electrically charging grains of kosher salt with a negative ion capacitor.  The salt jumps and bounces around in seemingly impossible ways. Crazy food of the future!  Oh by the way….this is where I work.

For more about moto restaurant, watch the video below!

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