My Lunch Today

The school day is so much better when I have an awesome lunch to look forward to. The extent of my suffering in math class is significantly reduced when I can drift off into dreams of the delicious delicacies awaiting me in my backpack.

This in mind, last night cut off a slice of fat from my pancetta, rendered that down with some chorizo (which I've been eating at practically every meal), removed the fat and the chorizo, then took some meat that I had pulled from a sous vide chicken leg and seared it in the hot fat. I took some red pepper pesto (pesto minus the basil, some call that identity theft, I call it delicious), smeared it on a tortilla, then topped it with the chicken and sausage. And even though the red pepper pesto was made with roasted jalapenos, I had to squirt some sriracha on top just to add a little fun for my tongue.

I nearly forgot I was in class.

Braised Pancetta

A few days ago I tweeted "If there is a god, he's eating pork belly right now" and I was completely serious. And that goes for any god. How else did Buddha grow such girth? Even if their religion prohibits the consumption of all porcine products, the gods are sneaking pork belly behind their backs. I'm convinced that if wine is the elixir of the gods, pork belly must be the food. It's really just that good. I would live off of it, if obesity wasn't linked to heart disease and diabetes among others.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. Maybe you remember my bacon post from a while back. In that post I made half of hunk a pork belly into bacon and used the other half for pancetta.

Since I had more than enough belly at the time, I froze the pancetta for later use. Just this past week I defrosted it, and cooked it sous vide at 180 degrees for 12 hours. It came out AMAZING. Seriously, this is probably the greatest thing I have ever created. Not only is it moutherwateringly tender and fatty, it's extremely flavorful and salty from the salt and herbs and spices that I used a while back to turn it into pancetta. The best part of the belly is definitely the fat which carries the flavor of the cure so well. The belly is great cold, but even better when crisped up. The fat renders very nicely and it becomes crispy nice and quick. In fact, I think I'll crisp up some of the fat and put it in a salad right now...

Bacon

It all started with my procuring of a 4 pound Lancaster pork belly, from my buddy the butcher. "Mmm" I thought, pork belly is second only to foie gras in my hierarchy of meats.

I found Ruhlman's recipe online, then set about making the cure, and placing the belly in a plastic bag for a week.

That was a sad week.

Each day I would open up the fridge to find the belly staring at me with puppy eyes, begging me to braise it and devour it right away. That week put me in touch with animal lovers across the world. I practiced composure and restraint until it was time to remove the belly.

I roasted, not smoked, the meat- smoking wasn't convenient at the time. Though bacon connoisseurs may scoff, I beg them to taste.

This bacon is much more than salty, fatty, heaven. The flavors of thyme, bay, and peppercorn, rarely detectable in bacon, harmonize to create ultra-flavorful, multi-dimensional meat, that is yes, salty, fatty, heaven as well.

I did not make all of the belly into bacon however. Half is dry-curing to become pancetta. Updates on that in the future!

ALERT: For the next few days, maybe even a week, my attention will be devoted to writing about my recent meal at Per Se.

Yes, I went back.