Delicate pork belly - wonderful meat, from which you can cook dozens of delicious dishes.
Pink meat layers between the white waves of air fat can awaken no less appetite than tiramisu or fried potatoes. It is important that buying a fresh brisket will not hit the wallet (which cannot be said about the finished industrial product), and you can cook it very quickly.
Pork brisket is used for both everyday and festive dishes, causing constant excitement among households and guests. It depends only on the hostess’s desire whether to limit herself to a minimum of seasonings and spices or to show the wonders of culinary ingenuity and hit into bold experiments. Quenching, baking, frying, salting, smoking, stuffing - you can do anything with brisket! The result is amazing anyway.
Pork belly - general cooking principles
There are two main ways to cook brisket: hot or cold.
Hot cooking - this is frying, baking, stewing.
Cool way - salting and cold smoking, possible only with a special home smokehouse.
It takes a lot of time to pickle and smoke meat: up to several days and even weeks. Therefore, if you need to quickly feed your family or meet guests with a rosy, tender, bleeding brisket juice, there is nothing better than an oven or pans.
To prepare the brisket for cooking, it is enough to wash and dry a whole piece of meat, cut out the bones and cartilage, and coat with a mixture of salt and spices. Next, you can stuff the meat with a few cloves of garlic, put in a foil or sleeve for baking and send in a preheated oven. After forty-sixty minutes, a delicious dish is served at the table with baked vegetables, pasta, mashed potatoes, stewed cabbage.
Often, before roasting, pork belly is marinated in brine and spices. The meat is more tender, acquires the flavor of seasonings. Very good for baking horseradish root to be finely rubbed. From spices, it is worth taking a look at ground black and red pepper, dried basil, dill, parsley, ground nutmeg, turmeric, rosemary, paprika, and juniper. Great spicy flavor gets breast, soaked or baked with young garlic.
The brisket is good not only hot, but also cold, so it can successfully replace unhealthy industrial sausage. For breakfast with brown bread - that’s it!
Stuff pork belly can be anything. Mushrooms, vegetables, apples, walnuts, dried fruits, green onions, cheese, minced meat and even a boiled egg can act as wonderful mincemeat. Stuffing allows you to transfer a dish from the category of snacks to the status of the main hearty dish.
Pork belly with pineapple on a carrot "pillow"
The original method of cooking pork belly on the "pillow" of fresh carrots allows you to get not only excellent meat, but also a side dish for it. Pineapple rings will make the flavor of baked brisket very thin and delicate, give the meat a wonderful sweet-sour taste. You will need a not very fatty piece with a lot of meat layers.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of meat with skin;
• a can of canned pineapples or six fresh rings;
• one large carrot and six young thin;
• a mixture of peppers and coarse salt;
• one and a half tablespoons of Bavarian mustard;
• a tablespoon of plain hot mustard;
• five spoons of mayonnaise;
• packaging of the finished mixture of "Provence Herbs";
• a spoonful of dried basil.
Cooking method:
Cut the prepared piece of meat across from the inside so that the distance to the skin is at least two or three centimeters. Grate with pepper and salt.
Cut the peeled large carrots into thin rings and fill them with cuts in the meat.
Cut the pineapple into thin semi-wheat tongues and also insert into the meat cuts near the carrot rings.
Peel the young thin carrots and cut along.
Put the carrot halves in a greased baking dish.
Place the brisket on the carrot "pillow". The form should be such that the brisket in it was cramped: it will not allow the meat during thermal processing to fall apart into pieces.
Mayonnaise mixed with mustard, pepper, dried herbs, salt and coat the marinade with a piece of meat. Leave two or three tablespoons of sauce for later, tightly closing the container.
Remove the form for two to three hours in the refrigerator so that the brisket is marinated well. If possible, pickle meat can be longer - 10-12 hours.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees, turning on the top and bottom heating.
Remove the meat and coat again with the remaining marinade.
Bake brisket 25 minutes at 200 degrees, then set the switch to 180 degrees and bake until done (about an hour).
Serve the meat by slicing into portions. As a side dish, offer carrots, on which it was baked.
Pork belly in cream sauce
Sour cream sauce will give the slices of pork a delicate sour and creamy taste. The meat cooked according to this recipe literally melts in your mouth. The recipe is simple, the amount of ingredients is minimal, and the result is excellent! The best option in order to tasty and inexpensively feed the family.
Ingredients:
• a pound of lean meat brisket;
• large onion;
• three spoons of vegetable oil;
• parsley (dried or fresh);
• on request - a ready mix of spices for meat;
• salt and black pepper;
• a jar of low-fat sour cream;
• a spoonful of flour;
• three tablespoons of butter.
Cooking method
Prepare a prepared piece of pork belly from cartilage and bones, cut into medium-sized slices and marinate in a spoonful of oil, seasoning and pepper.
You can start cooking right away. If you have time, you should remove the meat in the fridge for marinating for a few hours or a day.
Heat the oil in a thick-walled skillet and fry the meat sticks in it for about three to four minutes. As soon as the meat becomes light, and an appetizing crust appears on the pieces, they should be laid out from the pan on a separate plate.
Cut the onions into rings and sauté in the same oil where the meat was fried.
Again, put the meat in a pan to the onions, salt and pour half a glass of water and simmer on low heat under the lid closed.
In a separate frying pan, bake flour without oil until a light brown color appears. Add pieces of butter, melt, mix with flour, and pour sour cream. The sauce should boil for a minute or two. If it is too thick, you can safely dilute the flour-flour mixture with water.
Pour the sour cream sauce into the meat and simmer for another half hour.
Fried pork belly
Juicy, tasty and surprisingly easy to prepare pork brisket is obtained by ordinary roasting meat slices in a pan. No marinades, spices, sauces - only meat, salt, pepper and a drop of vegetable oil.
Ingredients:
• a small piece of meat brisket weighing up to 400 grams;
• a mixture of five peppers;
• salt;
• spoon of vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
The breast should be taken with thin layers of fat.
Cut the prepared meat into slices no thicker than a centimeter. Salt, pepper.
Drip oil in the pan, rub with a paper napkin or silicone brush, heat it up.
After reducing the heat, fry the meat slices on each side for at least four minutes. Use a spatula to press the entire surface of the meat to the bottom of the pan.
Pork brisket stewed with mushrooms
You can cook pork brisket by stewing it with mushrooms in literally half an hour. The highlight of the dish is a fragrant sauce, which must be served with meat and side dishes.
Ingredients:
• a piece of brisket weighing up to 700 grams;
• 250 grams of fresh or frozen mushrooms;
• large onion;
• one hundred grams of sour cream;
• two tablespoons of tomato paste;
• one and a half tablespoons of flour;
• a mixture of peppers;
• vegetable oil.
Cooking method:
Chop the brisket into two-centimeter thick bars, marinate in a mixture of butter and pepper.
In a hot pan very quickly, for two to three minutes, fry the meat in two doses. If you put all the meat in a frying pan at once, it will not fry and release juice.
Put the meat on a separate plate.
Finely chop the onion and sauté it in the same pan, where the meat was roasting, for about four minutes.
Put the mushrooms onion, simmer for five minutes.
Add flour to the pan, fry, stirring, for two minutes, then add the tomato paste.
After a minute, pour in sour cream and half a glass of water from a hot kettle.
When the mushroom sauce boils, put in it slices of pork, salt, add a mixture of peppers and spices to taste (for example, a spoonful of the prepared mixture “For meat”).
Simmer in a lid on low heat for 15 minutes. If the meat does not become soft, then it is fried incorrectly. Quenching should be continued until soft.
Pork Belly "Home-style"
Fragrant, soft, fantastically delicious pork belly, cooked according to the classic home recipe, will help the hostess in any situation. You can make morning sandwiches from it, serve it with a garnish for dinner or put it on a plate beautifully in the company of pickles and tomatoes to beautifully serve the festive table. For the preparation of a universal product you need only garlic, pepper and onion peel.
Ingredients:
• a large piece of brisket with skin weighing up to two kilograms;
• four handfuls of onion peel;
• two liters of water;
• three spoons of coarse sea salt;
• three heads of garlic;
• ground red and black pepper.
Cooking method:
Cook onion brew. Boil water, salt, add washed onion peel and let it boil for a couple of minutes.
Lay washed meat, cut into pieces of 700 grams. Cook over medium heat for fifteen minutes.
Turn off the gas and leave the meat in hot water for twelve to eighteen hours.
Remove the breast, dry, grate with a mixture of peppers and chopped garlic, wrap in parchment paper or foil and refrigerate for five hours.
Store meat in the freezer.
Pork belly in beer
A convenient modern multicooker is another way to cook pork belly quickly and without any hassle. The meat is soft, juicy, and due to the beer - spicy-flavored.
Ingredients:
• about a kilogram of brisket on the skin;
• half a liter of light beers;
• favorite dried herbs;
• a mixture of peppers and salt.
Cooking method:
Prepare a piece of brisket with beer and marinate for 24 hours in the refrigerator. If the foam marinade is small and it does not cover the whole piece, it does not matter. Pork can simply be turned from time to time so that it turns out to be in a liquid from different edges.
Drain beer marinade into the thicket of the slow cooker, lay the brisket skin up. Beer should cover at least two-thirds of the meat piece.
Sprinkle meat with spices, salt, dried herbs.
Choose a quenching mode and cook the brisket for two hours. Two or three times the meat must be turned over to evenly soak the marinade and spices.
Cut off the skin when serving.
Pork Belly with Lentils
A full meal can be prepared by baking brisket with green or brown lentils. The bean queen will compete with traditional potatoes. Fragrant food will appeal to the whole family.
Ingredients:
• one and a half kilograms of brisket;
• 600 grams of lentils;
• two medium bulbs;
• one or two large carrots;
• three garlic cloves;
• seasoning for meat to taste;
• two spoons of butter;
• four spoons of vegetable oil;
• a mixture of peppers;
• salt.
Cooking method:
Grate the prepared piece of brisket with seasonings.
Put the meat in the form, add a little water (no more glass), cover with foil and bake for an hour and a half at 180 degrees.
Wash the washed lentils with water, bring to a boil and strain through a colander.
Chopped peeled vegetables, chop the garlic with a knife
Pour in vegetable oil in a saucepan, add butter and fry onion, garlic and carrot in this mixture for ten minutes.
Combine the lentils and sautéed vegetables in a pan, heat for five minutes over high heat.
Remove from heat, salt, sprinkle with pepper.
Shape the lentils in a pork belly shape, add a half to two glasses of water and bake for another forty minutes without foil.
Cover the dish with foil and bake for another ten to fifteen minutes to create a unique flavor.
Put the lentils on a wide dish, put the sliced pieces of brisket on top, decorate with greens.
Italian pork belly with citrus salt
The delicate fresh taste and aroma of lemons give the pork belly a unique charm. Maple syrup will add a piquancy, and white wine vinegar will add spiciness. The highlight of the recipe is Mediterranean fava beans, which are easily replaced by Russian garden young beans or asparagus beans. You need at least once cooked meat for this exquisite recipe to enjoy its amazing taste and aroma.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of brisket without skin;
• four lemons;
• 400 grams of beans;
• 300 grams of Savoy cabbage;
• two carrots;
• spoon of olive oil;
• half bowl of maple syrup;
• a glass of balsamic vinegar;
• two tablespoons of white wine vinegar;
• a teaspoon of mustard and coriander seeds;
• fresh or dried Italian herbs (thyme, rosemary);
• 50 grams of coarse sea salt.
Cooking method:
Remove the zest from the lemon, mix it with salt and herbs.
Grate the prepared piece of meat with citrus salt and refrigerate for ten hours for marinating.
When the brisket is properly marinated, you need to remove all the salt from it whole, wash it with clean cold water, dry it and send it to the oven preheated to 230 degrees for half an hour.
Switch the oven to a lower temperature of 120 degrees and bake meat for another hour and a half.
Prepare a side dish. Blanch individual leaves of savoy cabbage for three minutes.
Pour the cabbage with marinade from oil, white vinegar, maple syrup, peas of white pepper and coriander seeds heated in a pan. Send to the fridge for an hour.
Blanched beans and diced carrots, blanch for three minutes.
Thinly chop pickled cabbage and mix with blanched vegetables.
Slightly fry vegetables in butter.
Prepare the sauce by cooking a little balsamic vinegar over low heat.
Serve wonderful meat with an amazing side dish.
Pork belly stuffed with eggplant and cheese
Stuffed with eggplant and cheese, pork belly will replace a full meal. The combination of butter, red wine, olives and lemon marinade gives the dish a refined taste. The magical aroma of hints of cloves, garlic, freshly ground pepper, green onions and herbs shade.
Ingredients:
• kilogram of pork belly;
• four medium bakalaganas;
• a glass of dry red wine;
• one fragrant clove;
• large onion;
• medium carrot;
• favorite fresh herbs (dill, celery, parsley, green onions);
• 200 grams of grated cheese;
• one hundred grams of crushed crackers for breading;
• half a jar of pitted olives;
• three cloves of garlic;
• a tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice;
• salt and pepper.
Cooking method:
Cut the onion into transparent half rings.
Grate carrots.
Finely chop the greens.
Pour onion, carrots and herbs with wine, salt, add pepper to taste and warm everything until hot. Cool completely.
Cut the meat lengthwise, pour the marinade and send to the top shelf of the refrigerator.
Cut eggplant into thin circles, add salt and leave to separate juice.
Fry the chopped onion and chopped garlic on a spoon of hot oil until golden brown.
Wash eggplants with clean water, dry, mix with onion-garlic zazharka, grated cheese, sliced olives, green onions, bread crumbs and lemon juice.
Mince pepper, salt to taste.
Take out the brisket, put the minced meat in the cut, sew it with a thread or chop it with wooden toothpicks.
Grease a baking sheet or a form with vegetable oil, lay the stuffed brisket and bake at a temperature of 200 degrees until tender.
Pork belly - tips and tricks
- You can check the readiness of baked meat with a fork or a sharp toothpick. If they easily pierce the meaty piece and at the same time the pinkish juice is not released, the brisket is ready.
- Another way to check is to cut the meat. If the middle is still pink, the brisket is not ready, it needs to be baked.
- A large piece of brisket in the oven can burn on top. To avoid this, cover the meat with foil.
- Great meat is obtained if the alternation of white and pink layers of the brisket is even. When the temperature of the oven, the pan or the slow cooker is high, the lard melts, softening and making succulent meat layers.
- Contrary to common misconceptions fat is not harmful. On the contrary, it contains arachidonic acid, which has a beneficial effect on the joints and the heart. For therapeutic effect enough daily servings of fat in thirty grams.
- Pork fat contains a large amount of omega-3 fatty acid. Fat lovers do not suffer from depression and are distinguished by a strong nervous system.
- To make stuffed pork tastier, it needs to be kept in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
