Pork Belly

I can tell when someone really knows me when they bring Pork Belly to my housewarming as a gift.  Thanks to Lillian and Josh, I got to make an attempt at cooking this delicious food.  Honestly, at first, I wasn’t too sure.   When I took out the pork belly and cut it up, however, there was SO much fat on it that I was wondering if it would even be edible.  Oh how naive of me!

Lillian told me it was salted pork belly (which sent me to Google, only to find out that brining is customary for pork belly and doesn’t impact the preparation… shrug… okay!

I found a recipe that sounded good and mixed pork with fruit (basically, I love just about anything with warm fruit).  I put it all together and hoped for the best.

While I’m sure I could have poured off the rest of the fat from the pork, I decided it was much more tasty sounding to use it to cook the veggies in. And OH was it good!  I had leftover citrus cauliflower (it’s yellow and smaller) and mushrooms to play with.  SOOOO good.

I also had some leftover yummy pasta.  So the plate was delicious AND colorful.

Holy crap did it turn out well!  I think this may be one of my favoritist things I’ve ever made.  I’m sure it’s terrible for me, but I could eat this every single day.  In fact, my mouth is watering for it right now.

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RECIPES
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Ingredients:

• 6 slices of belly pork
• 4 medium cooking (tart) apples, peeled, cored and quartered (I didn’t peal mine since I love roasted apples with skin)
• 2 tbsp plain flour (All purpose)
• 1 1/4 cup cider
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Fry the pork in a frying pan until crisp on both sides.
3. Remove from the pan with tongs and arrange in a baking dish. Surround with the apple quarters.
4. Pour off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat from the frying pan. (or use the rest for delicious veggies!)
5. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes.
6. Gradually stir in the milk or cider and bring to the boil.
7. Add salt and pepper, then pour this sauce over the pork and apples.
8. Bake in a preheated moderate oven (350°F) for 35 to 45 minutes.

An Austrian Brasserie

I have passed by Klee on 9th Ave between 22nd and 23rd many, many times while I lived in the neighborhood. I had heard good things in various blogs and magazines, but it was always right there, so I just never went. Our last weekend in the apartment led me to make sure we knocked this one off the list. I didn’t know much about it, and assumed Klee Brasserie was probably french. Turns out it’s Austrian, which was interesting as I was just reading my Great Aunt’s fascinating book about her departure from Austria during the Holocaust (my Grandmother also left Austria when she was 11 and came here by way of Cuba).

We came a bit before the dinner rush without a reservation, so we sat at the bar and it was quite nice.

The menu looked great, however, when the waitress came to tell us about the specials I knew the “reasonably priced” dinner was going out the window. The Oktoberfest menu featured a few selections made with a special Mangalitsa Pork, however, the special featured pork belly with crispy skin. Pork Belly? Crispy Skin? I don’t think there are four more beautiful words in the English language. (I’m such a good Jew!)

Before I get ahead of myself, however, we did have an appetizer. We chose the side of three roasted squashes with Spanish cheese spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg as an app. This was great, and the cheese really made the dish.

Mike chose the Lancaster roasted chicken and sausage with brussel sprouts, chestnut, and orange whip. (In the pictures, the sausage is under the greens). This is a great example of how what you order at a restaurant really makes a difference. This dish was just okay. The sausage was tasty but the chicken wasn’t anything special.

To contrast, my pork was so good I wanted to lick the plate. I thought she said it came with roasted fingerling potatoes, but it was a purple potato mash (of sorts) with big chunks of roasted potato in it. It was good and all, but the pork belly… wow.

Check out the picture. Crispy skin, layer of delicious fat, then perfectly cooked belly. Nom Nom Nom. I’m drooling just thinking about it.

It did take some time for our desserts to come out, but it was nice that the chef sent out a cranberry drink of some sort. As someone that isn’t overly keen on cranberries, I was impressed by how much I enjoyed this.

Since we were already living indulgently (hey… we were rewarding ourselves for packing all day), we went for a dessert drink of amaretto on the rocks (if anyone doesn’t know how to make that… you take some amaretto… and you pour it over ice). It was quite rewarding.

For dessert, I chose the Sacher Torte with Schlag (they had “shlag” on their menu!) It had a layer of apricot and was very, very tasty. I especially liked the torched top of the whipped cream squiggle. Gave it a toasted marshmallow quality.

Mike chose the Peanut Butter and Banana Pudding with salted honey crisps. The honey crisps were more like VERY sticky popcorn (that was quite hard to eat) and the pudding was quite peanut buttery but not enough banana.

Overall, the food was interesting and delicious, but really varied depending on what was ordered. My dishes were all great (in the 8 Nom Points territory), Mike’s were just so-so (in the 6 Nom Points territory). Therefore…

Total Nom Points: 7 out of 10