Pork belly

We have a food saver. It's a blessing and a curse. No, it's actually probably just a blessing. I buy a lot of meat, vacuum seal it, and then put it in the freezer. Then it goes on the list. The list lives on the fridge. It gives description, source (usually a farm name), date it was frozen, and location.

We have friends over and they like to look at the list. The first exclamation is always at the fact that the list exists at all. I don't see why everyone doesn't have one of these lists. Anyway. The thing about vacuum sealing meat and having quite an assortment is that we have some kind of old stuff in there, from like 2009. So in an attempt to clean stuff out, I've been making stuff from the freezer.

I pulled out a rather large piece of pork belly from Pine Street Market from 2009. Its seal was solid and the meat was still in good condition. SO THERE!

Anyway. I cut off 1/3 of it and refroze it. Don't tell because it got a new entry on the list: 2013. :)

Anyway, I looked for recipes for pork belly and settled on a braised one from Molly Stevens' The Art of Braising.

I think I need different sized roasting pans. The top got a little too crispy; as you can see, it almost looks burnt. But it was unctuous and good anyway. I served it, as recommended, with butter glazed turnips and an arugula salad. We also had some fava beans in there so they got in the mix.

The next day, I needed a snack. So I steamed up some of the frozen buns and made pork buns. Delicious snack.

I actually have some of the pork belly left. Not sure what I will do with it, but better figure out something damn soon.