Crispy pork belly

Crispy pork belly with caramelized endive and bordelaise sauce - -12/14/10

The crispy pork belly is recipe from my mom! It is actually a Vietnamese recipe but I took it to new height by serving it with caramelized endives and topped it with a bordelaise sauce. From a Vietnamese origin it metamorphosed into a French dish of course with the help of the Bordelaise sauce. This dish is my creation so you can only eat it here at our house.

Crispy pork belly is not even a popular Vietnamese dish because I think it was a recipe from a specific small region of Vietnam and therefore never the popularity but what a dish. I love the crispiness of the skin and it is so satisfying. Choose a cut that does not have lots of fat and you will truly enjoy this dish.

I was able to buy the perfect pork belly which had the perfect proportion of meat and fat. Frying the pork belly makes it so crispy and it does not have any taste of fat. It so good that my friends wanted more of it but I only make a piece per person.

Here I am plating the crispy pork belly for 18 people.

Preparation work..

Ingredients:

Pork Belly

2 piece of pork belly

Endives

Endives

1/3 cup of chicken broth

Salt and pepper to taste

Bordelaise sauce:

2 to 3 large shallots chopped

2 tablespoon butter

1 cup red wine

2 tablespoon flour

beef broth + 1 spoon of demi-glace

Clean the pork belly and cut them into large piece about 3 inches.

Put the pork belly into a large pot of water and boil them.

Once the water is boiling take the pot out of the burner and dump all of the water all. Clean the pork belly once more time..

Fill the pot with fresh water and add lots of salt. Bring the pot to a boil about 35 to 45 minutes.

Pour the water out and put the pork belly in a large bowl.

Take a fork and prick the skin until you can see that indentations on the skin. This is an important step make so do not skip it. In order to make the skin crispy you will need to pierce the skin with a fork.

Fried the pork belly for about a few minutes or until golden and crispy. The pork belly will splash a lot in the beginning.

Here are the pork belly once that are fried. Cut them into small portion and re-fried them again once you are ready to serve.

In a skillet melt a tablespoon of butter and add the endive. Once the butter turned brown, lower the heat to medium-low.

Add a bit of water to the skillet.

Cover the skillet and let the endive soften, about 5 minutes or so.

Once all the has evaporated, remove the lid and turned the heat to high.

Let the endives caramelized. Turned them around so the endives are caramelized on the other side too. Add salt and pepper to taste. Set aside until ready to serve.

You should prepare the Bordelaise sauce while the pork belly are cooking in the boiling water. Melt the butter and adding the chopped shallots in a pan

The heat is lower down to the lowest point and a piece of aluminum is placed on top of the pan. The shallots are cooked slowly for about 10 minutes until really soft but not browned.

After 10 minutes the aluminum foils is removed..

Red wine is added to the pan. .

The wine is cooked off in a slow simmer (15/20 minutes) until all the wine is evaporated.

Once the wine is evaporated, flour is added and cooked for about a minute or so..

For the broth I use demi-glace (store bought) mixed with beef broth.

Here I am adding the broth to the pan.

The sauce is brought to a boil and then removed from the heat. Butter is added and a splash of cognac is poured into the sauce. The sauce can be kept in the fridge for a few days. When ready to serve the sauce is re-heat up and ready to be served.