Time To Try Something New

I've been cooking in professional kitchens since I was 14 years old. That's 27 years cooking just about anything and everything that I can get my hands on. But there is a short list of things I've always wanted to do in a kitchen but never have. With a few days off from the golf course, it was time to tackle a couple of them.


The first is to cook pork belly. This beautiful cut, also known as "unsmoked bacon" is famous for it's rich and unctuous mouth-feel. A mainstay in Asian cuisine, I have always found the idea  of cooking pork belly to be daunting. It is completely outside of my experience, but it is a challenge whose time has come.


The second is to use a pressure cooker.When I was a kid, my mom had a great big one in the cupboard, but I don't ever remember seeing her use it. I've always thought of pressure cookers as a little dangerous and maybe a bit outdated. No longer really needed in the modern kitchen. But when a good friend passed along a brand new beautiful Kuhn Rikon to me, I knew it was only a matter of time before it would get used. (This of course, is much to my Dalocalwife's chagrin. I think she was expecting explosions, structural damage to the house and 3rd degree steam burns.)


I headed down to T & T Supermarket in Richmond Hill and picked up a beautiful 2 lb piece of pork belly and some lovely vegetables, as well as a little snack of steamed pork buns and shrimp dumplings. Needless to say, the dim sum didn't make it home.

I had hunted for recipes for cooking pork belly in a pressure cooker, but didn't find any that I liked. They were wildly different in times and technique, so I decided to just wing it.


I skinned the pork and rubbed it down with a mixture of salt, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and Chinese 5-Spice powder. I then set to browning the belly over medium heat, in hopes of rendering out some of the fat and giving it a richer flavour. As it cooked, I started on the rest of the prep.


Green onions, garlic cloves and ginger were the aromatics of choice. Nothing too finely cut, since I would be straining them out later.

 A quick search through my cupboards turned up my broth ingredients: vegetable stock, 5-spice powder, oyster sauce, sesame oil, soy sauce, demerara sugar and last but not least some Sweet & Spicy Tabasco for a bit of kick.

I got the ginger, garlic and green onion sauteing in the pressure cooker. Once they were softened and fragrant, I added the pieces of browned pork belly and then the broth ingredients. I brought it all to a boil and then slapped on the lid. Once the cooker had come up to pressure I turned the burner down to medium-low heat and sat back and waited for an hour to pass. (Keeping a close eye and ear out for explosions and the like.)

After an exciting hour watching the valve, I pulled the pressure cooker off the heat and gave it a good 20 minutes to cool down. When I opened it up, after releasing the last of the pressure, the smell was exquisite. Sweet and spicy at the same time. I checked for tenderness, using the handle of a teaspoon. It went straight through, without the slightest resistance. (I have to admit, I might have giggled.) I transferred the bacon to a container and then strained the cooking liquid over top. I transferred it straight into the fridge to give the pork a chance to firm up overnight. I closed the fridge door and reluctantly headed for bed.

After a restless night, which included 2 trips to the fridge to peek at the cooling pork belly, I was ready to get started.

First, I transferred the cooking liquid to a pot (discarding the fat on the surface) and began reducing it to make my sauce. I sliced the pork and laid it on a rack on a baking sheet. It went into the oven under a low temperature broiler to further render out some fat. A pot of plain rice went on the stove and I prepped the vegetables to go alongside.


As my vegetables started to cook, I brushed the slices of pork belly with the reduced cooking liquid and returned them to the oven. I would do this 5 times, each one giving more shine and stickiness to the slices.

All that was left was to assemble the dish. After mounding the rice on one side and the vegetables on the other, I gently laid the glazed slices of pork belly on top. The remaining sauce went into a side dish and it was time to eat.

The meat was incredible. It had that beautiful texture that you only find in certain very special cuts, like lamb shanks and beef short ribs. The vegetables and rice made a perfect foil for the sweet, sticky pork. So fatty and rich, it was exactly as I had hoped. The resulting sauce was sweet and fragrant, tying the whole dish together.

Without a doubt, I will be cooking more pork belly. And as for the pressure cooker, I now understand. It is a unique piece of equipment that is going to see a lot more use in my kitchen at home.