Pork belly bites
Recipe
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30 minutes
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300 minutes
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330 minutes
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20 pieces
Do you love pork belly and are you planning to throw a party? Then try serving these delicious pork belly bites from the Big Green Egg. They are simply sumptuous and are a feast for the eyes, as you’ll serve them on a dish with a roasted pepper and stewed asparagus from your kamado. Sounds complicated? This recipe is actually deceptively simple! While the pork belly cooks slowly, you’ll roast the peppers at the same time and when the pork belly is resting, just simmer the roasted peppers and green asparagus in a flavourful glaze in the skillet. However, you’ll need to set aside enough time for preparations, as the pork belly needs to brine for 6 to 8 hours and cook for about 4 hours.
INGREDIENTS
Pork belly
1 kg pork belly, without rind
Brine
- 1 bulb of garlic
- 3 cm fresh ginger
- 1 organic orange
- 1 stalk of lemongrass
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 1 tbsp cloves
- 1 tbsp coriander seeds
- 1 tbsp juniper berries
- 1 tbsp cubeb pepper
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 80 g nitrite salt
Glaze
- 3 cm red Spanish chilli pepper
- 1 cm ginger root
- 2 wedges of preserved lemon
- 100 ml gin
- 50 ml soy sauce
- 2 tbsp ginger syrup
- 1 tbsp yakiniku sauce
- 3 tbsp cane sugar
Rub
- 10 juniper berries
- 100 g brown caster sugar
- 50 g sea salt flakes
- 1 tsp ground cubeb pepper
- 1 tsp ground laos
- 1 tsp Madras curry powder
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp ground cumin seed
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1 tsp onion powder
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
Garnish
- 1 red bell pepper
- 2 yellow bell peppers
- 1 bunch of green asparagus
- 1 tbsp olive oil
IN ADVANCE
- For the brine, halve the bulb of garlic widthwise. Slice the ginger root. Peel the orange and go ahead and eat the flesh, as you only need the orange peel. Bruise the lemongrass. Break up the cinnamon stick and crush the cloves, coriander seeds, juniper berries, cubeb pepper and fennel seeds in a mortar.
- Heat 500 millilitres of water and dissolve the nitrite brine salt in it. Add the remaining ingredients for the brine and simmer gently for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the pan with brine from the heat, add 500 millilitres of cold water (this will make the brine cool faster) and allow to cool completely.
- Place the pork belly in the cooled brine and make sure it is completely submerged. Leave to brine for 6-8 hours in the fridge.
- Meanwhile, for the glaze, cut the chilli into thin rings and the ginger root into slices. Cut the pulp out of the wedges of preserved lemon, you will only use the peel. Bring all the ingredients for the glaze to the boil in a saucepan. Turn down the heat and reduce by half.
- Meanwhile, for the rub, grind the juniper berries in a mortar or spice grinder and mix with the remaining ingredients for the rub. Set aside.
- Pour the reduced glaze through a sieve and set aside.
METHOD
- Light the charcoal in the Big Green Egg and heat to a temperature of 160°C. Remove the pork belly from the brine and pat the meat dry with kitchen paper. Cut the pork belly into two equal pieces, so you can create neat slices later that are coated with the rub. Rub the pork belly with about 4 tablespoons of the rub. You can save the leftover rub for next time.
- Place a chunk of apple smoking wood on the glowing charcoal and insert the heat shield. Put a drip pan on top of this and insert the stainless steel grid in the kamado. Place the pork belly fat side up on the grill and close the lid of the Big Green Egg. The temperature will drop to around 110°C. Maintain this temperature and let the bacon smoke and cook for about 2 hours.
- For the garnish, place the peppers next to the pork belly on the grill and close the lid of the Big Green Egg. Bring the temperature of the kamado to 150°C. Let the pork belly cook for another 2 hours and roast the peppers for about 30 minutes until soft.
- Remove the peppers from the EGG and put them in a sealed plastic bag. Let them rest for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the stem, skin and seeds from the peppers and cut the flesh into chunks. Set aside.
- Remove the pork belly from the Big Green Egg and let it rest loosely covered with aluminium foil. Meanwhile, remove the grid, drip pan and heat shield and put the grid back. Place the cast-iron skillet on the grid and close the lid of the EGG. Heat to 180°C. For the garnish, cut the asparagus into pieces of about 1 centimetre.
- Heat the olive oil in the skillet and add the asparagus pieces, roasted pepper and 4 tablespoons of the glaze; use the rest of the glaze next time or for another dish. Stew the vegetables for 3 to 4 minutes until the asparagus is al dente. Stir occasionally, closing the lid of the Big Green Egg afterwards each time.
- Divide the vegetables among 20 small bowls. Cut the pork belly into 20 slices and place them on top of the vegetables.
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