Real Food Has Curves

I thought we might as well go over the top. I've been saving this recipe back; but heck, the day's are getting shorter and it's time to fatten up for winter. Thus, a big hunk of pork belly. NOT smoked. About 2 pounds worth. Notice how lean this thing is. You can find the same at high-end supermarkets. But this baby is from our own pig. This year's version, that is. Wilbur II. (The tale of the original is told in our forthcoming HAM book. Let's just say it involves gunky stuff scraped off Prada boots with twigs, screeching French butchers, and a certain collie on meat patrol for weeks. But that's another story indeed.)

Anyway, "red cooking" is a classic Chinese braise, so named because of the way good soy sauce develops a slightly red cast after simmering for hours. In other words, this is not a dish for a Wednesday night but a weekend one, for sure. (With a couple statins as a chaser, of course.)

So here goes. Cut up those 2 pounds of pork belly into 1 1/2-inch cubes. Put them in a big bowl, then mix in 5 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 tablespoons packed dark brown sugar, 2 tablespoons Shaoxing wine (a Chinese rice wine you can find at many supermarkets--or substitute dry sherry), the zest from an orange or a tangerine (take it off with a vegetable peeler--and save the fruit to be used in a bit), two cinnamon sticks, and a star anise pod. Also stir in a 3-inch piece of peeled fresh ginger, sliced into thin disks. Stir all this really well, then cover and set in the fridge overnight, stirring once in a blue moon. (See, no Wednesday night dish. By the way, we'll get to the chiles and scallions in the picture in a second.)

Now it gets fun. Melt a couple tablespoons lard in a deep, high-sided sauté pan (or maybe a shallow French flame-and-oven-safe casserole). Yes, lard. Not the hydrogenated, shelf-stable stuff. Ask the butcher at your market for the real thing, cut from a pig. Did you know it's in fact a monounsaturated fat like olive oil? But again, not the hydrogenated, shelf-stable stuff. Or try duck fat in this dish. Pure bliss.

Add the pork in pieces from the marinade, making sure there's no spices stuck to them. Brown them well on all sides, about 10 minutes a piece, turning often. Don't skimp. You want lots of color on these things. And don't crowd the pan. Put in half, maybe just a third of what you've got, brown these off, then put them in a bowl and do more, adding more lard if (IF!) you see the skillet is dry (HA!).

Once everything's brown, pour off the fat from pan (not down the drain unless you're married to a plumber), then set the pan back over medium heat and pour in 2 cups water. Raise the heat to high and scrape all that brown stuff off the bottom of the pan as the water comes to a boil.

Pour in all that reserved marinade and its spices, as well as 6 dried or fresh red or green chiles (like serranos) and 5 sliced garlic cloves, plus 2 more packed tablespoons dark brown sugar. Pour in the pork as well as 6 scallions cut into 1-inch bits. Stir it a bit, put on the lid, and bring the thing to a simmer, stirring occasionally so the sugar doesn't fall out of suspension and stick on the pan's bottom.

Reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the chunks of pork are meltingly tender, between 2 1/2 and 3 1/2 hours. Why the big time gap? Because no two hunks of belly will get tender at the same time. We've made this dish many times and it's taken varying time over the heat, depending on lots of factors with the meat: feed, stress at slaughter, stress during life, and amount of movement during life. Since our pig runs around all day in the fields, he gets a lot of play. So he needs a while over the heat to get tender. Maybe yours, too. So open another bottle of Pinot Noir and settle in.

Gently remove the meat pieces from the sauce and put them in a big bowl. Now turn up the heat under the sauce and really let it boil until it thickens a bit, about 10 minutes.

Return the pork pieces to the sauce and stir the juice from that orange or tangerine you saved a while back. How much? Oh, there's no telling. Maybe 3 tablespoons or so. No reason to get fussy at this stage. Simmer for 1 minute, then serve. Over rice. Or really crunchy croutons. With the statins, as I said.