When Steve was reviewing Louisville restaurants, he mostly wanted to remain anonymous. While that practice (along with the profession) is dwindling today, during the decade-plus he was writing reviews, Steve shunned chefs and took pride in his Zelig-like ability to escape notice even when they did meet him as a diner.
Now, as Editor of Louisville’s edition of Eater.com, Steve is supposed to hobnob with all sorts of industry folks—something he’s still a bit uncomfortable doing after all those years of anonymity. But hobnob he has, getting to know and be known by many area chefs including Edward Lee of 610 Magnolia, Milkwood, Top Chef, Iron Chef and Smoke & Pickles fame. (Before meeting through Eater, Lee actually served Steve food several times without ever recognizing him as a reviewer. Zelig!)
Steve and Edward now stay in semi-regular touch, their most odd conversation possibly the one involving pig milking and Steve perhaps watching Edward do this thing. Lee recently sent Steve a copy of Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey, a new cookbook written by Lee’s friend, Chef John Currence, noting the shared interest in porcine pursuits.
We perused the volume and found many dishes we want to try. This braised pork belly recipe particularly stood out both for its main ingredient (belly, duh) and because we happened to have one in the freezer. We substituted local sorghum for the Steen’s (cane) Syrup favored by Louisiana native Currence, wanting to be locavore and allow a shout-out to our friend and sorghum expert, Rona Roberts. (Besides, we didn’t have any Steen’s.)
The syrupy yet not-too-sweet belly made a lovely dinner, quite possibly because, as Currence says: “Pork belly is a magical thing when handled the right way.” Thanks for the cookbook, Edward!
SORGHUM-BRAISED PORK BELLY
(adapted from John Currence’s Pickles, Pigs & Whiskey)
- 3 TB salt
- 3 TB dark brown sugar
- 1 TB pepper
- 2 tsp. red pepper flakes
- 5-lb. slab pork belly
- 3 TB olive oil
- 1-1/2 c. thinly sliced onions
- 2 TB chopped garlic
- 1 c. peeled and diced carrots
- 1 c. diced celery
- 2 TB fresh thyme leaves
- 10 c. meat stock (we used veal)
- 2-1/2 c. sorghum molasses (or cane syrup or honey)
Combine seasonings in a small bowl. Trim the meat into a rectangle, removing any excess surface fat. Rub spices on the meat, top and bottom. Place on a baking sheet, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Remove meat from refrigerator and bring to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 325° F.
Rub off any excess spice mix from the meat. Sear on both sides in a large pan with a little bit of olive oil. Remove from heat and set aside.
Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a braising pan large enough to hold the meat. Sauté onions until wilted, then add garlic, carrots and celery. When vegetables are soft, add thyme leaves. Push the vegetables to the sides of the pan and lay meat in the middle. Add stock and sorghum. Bring to a simmer, then cover with foil and braise in the over for about 3 hours or until tender.
Let meat cool briefly. Then, remove the meat from the pan and rest at room temperature.
Strain braising liquid through a fine sieve into a saucepan, pressing the solids with a wooden spoon. Discard solids. Bring strained sauce to a boil over medium heat. Lower heat to simmer. Skim off the fat on the surface and discard. Turn heat back up and reduce sauce until it thickens. Season if needed.
Cut meat into equal portions and arrange on a serving plate. Pour sauce over and garnish with thyme sprigs.
Gourmandistan 
Beautiful photos as always! I have never heard of sorghum molasses …
Merci, Catherine! Sorghum is a southern U.S. staple and not so well known away from here. It’s much like maple syrup or cane syrup, but it has a slightly grassy note that makes it somehow seem slightly less sweet than those others. It’s excellent mixed with butter on biscuits. 🙂
I have to admit that pork belly is something out of my radar except for barbecue season – seems quite ignorant after reading this wonderful recipe! So in order to prove my own locavore (love the term!) qualities, I´ll head to the local pig specialized farmer/butcher asap to get me some of that belly! Merci, Gourmandistan…
Sweet! It’s not a cut we use that often. Though Steve wouldn’t complain if we had pork belly every day. 😉
I love pork belly, it’s so most and delicious and this dish looks great.
It is delicious, isn’t it? I remember the first time I had it (aside from the usual bacon) was at a Chinese place in New York decades ago. I was like, who can eat all this fat? Now, it’s on every restaurant menu!
A restaurant reviewer is one of those jobs that sounds like a dream job… (tell him that! 😉 ) I have to admit I’ve never made pork belly, there will be a 1st time!
As Steve always says (and I second it as the person who usually accompanied him back in the day): It’s a great job … as long as you’re reviewing a good restaurant.
That looks smashing – really, really smashing. Served with a massive dollop of the creamiest mash please? Also, that book made me double take – I assumed it was a skillet at first glance…
Thanks, Nick. I’m always afraid doing a pork belly dish because Steve guards every bit quite closely for his bacon-making and gets mad if I waste it!
That’s weird, for some reason I’ve completely forgotten, I did think about pig milking yesterday…
Your pork belly looks absolutely delicious 😉
Thanks, M.D. I’m sure Steve will keep you posted on the pig milking thing.
It’s weird, but I’d like to know more 😉
Stunning pics! Great post! Beautiful belly!
Thanks, Mimi! Hard to go wrong with a beautiful piece of meat from a friend’s happily-raised pig.
Mighty nice, you two. Thank you for dripping some sorghum into your beautiful pages, and for the shout-out.
🙂
Love pork belly and that looks amazing.
Thanks, Linda. It is such a yummy cut. And this was super easy.
If its pork belly I have to make it, this is my favourite meat cut in pork
Ain’t it the truth?
Absolutely gorgeous! Pork belly is Henry’s favorite. I’ll have to try this.
Thanks, Misti! We actually made only about 1/4 to 1/3 of the recipe, as we didn’t have guests and knew better than to have all those leftovers around. 😉
Oh man, this looks and sounds incredible! Pork belly is most certainly magical, love the pictures of its glazed fatty goodness. Also what a fantastic name for a cookbook — I’m going to have to keep an eye out for it.
That cookbook is right up your alley! I’ll skip the whiskey part, but I’m really anxious to try some of his pickle recipes when summer is in full swing.
Such a fantastic post. Lovely looking pork. I am 100% in favour of active reviewers staying secret. Here in little Ireland, our reviewers are all well known to the restaurants and the ensuing preening and gushing can be hard to take.
Thanks, Conor! You’re lucky at least in the UK to still have real reviewers (though I’m sure the preening and gushing is horrible). Here, so many newspapers and magazines have cut reviews completely or so altered the format as to make them useless. And don’t get me started on Yelp and such…
Mmmm, sorghum!
It’s great, isn’t it?
Ooo, lovely. You know you’re doing something right when Edward Lee is chatting you up about pig milking and sending you cookbooks! I’m glad to “know” people who know people :).
I hope Michelle reaps some benefits from Steve’s position with Eater.
She’s mostly reaped a lot of thankless work, photographing and correcting my mistakes. But she did score a sweet Derby media pass.
That’s so cool that Steve does reviews with Eater! I’m a little jealous.
I think the Eater gig is less stressful than the old reviewing thing was. At least we can now go out for a meal and just enjoy it without Steve talking into his napkin (OK, recording device) the whole time! 😉
I almost stopped reading when I hit your blueberry shortbread post, but pork belly will always catch my attention. Great recipe.