Pork-a-polooza

Today's activities included curing 10 lbs of pork belly for my next "Bacon, Bacon, Bacon" class on October 10th at the Center for Living Peace in Irvine, CA (www.goodhappens.org). I also rendered lard and ground up the remaining bits into Asian Pork patties (recipe to follow)
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I started with one whole (really a half) pork belly.

I cut it in quarters and squared of the ends.

Dry Cure
2 ounces kosher salt
(1/4 cup Morton or Diamond Crystal)
2 teaspoons pink curing salt #1
4 tablespoons coarsely ground black pepper
1/4 cup brown sugar or honey powder or maple sugar

Mix the ingredients together in a large enough pan to hold the belly. Dredge the meat in the cure mixture and shake off the extra. Put your belly in the zip-top bag, close the bag and massage it all over to rub the cure into the meat. Discard the leftover cure.

I'm still working on the flavor profiles I'm going with for the class, so stay tuned!

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 With the trimmings, I cut off all the meat and carefully cut out a couple of glands (grey vs pink). Yes, this is a little gross but necessary—besides you're already cutting up a belly...

The meat was added to some chunks of fat to be ground for Asian Pork Patties.

Asian Pork Patties
2 parts pork
1 part pork fat
2 large garlic cloves
4" piece of ginger peeled
3 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Cambodian Lemongrass Curry (from Savory Spice: www.savoryspiceshop.com/blends/cambod.html)


Chill all the grinder parts, and the pork in the freezer until very cold. It will help the fat not smear in the grinder. Grind the pork and fat with the largest plate. Then grind the ginger and garlic. Mix the ground meat and seasonings by hand and then regrind the mix on the smaller plate. Stir in soy and curry powder. Form into patties. Fry until cooked through and browned. Serve with sushi or sticky rice.

I added a quick sauce of Siracha, Kewpie Mayo, soy sauce and a pinch of the Cambodian curry powder.

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My final project was to render the lard from the remaining scraps and the extra package of trimmings and fat I picked up with my Pork Belly. I cut the pieces into chunks, left the skin on and added a couple of cups of water. I started it on the stove top then put it in a low oven (180º-200º) for as few hours.