Pork Belly Salad

Venture into any chic restaurant and they have an appetizer with pork belly in it. Perhaps it is served on a salad, or on polenta, or on beans. Or whatever the chef is overstocked on. It is usually oven roasted until it is luxuriously silky, soft, and succulent. Don't ask about the calorie count. Pork belly is made from the same cut as bacon, but it is not cured. Try this salad:

Makes. 4 portions
Takes. 24 hours to marinate and 90 minutes to cook

Ingredients
1 pound of raw pork belly, skin on or off
1 cup teriyaki sauce
1/2 treaspoon baking powder if the skin is on
4 salads

Do this
1) If the skin is on, leave it on. We can make it crunchy, a great contrast to the tender meat, and the molten fat. Cut the belly into portions of about 1/4 pounds.

2) Marinate in a teriyaki sauce for 24 hours or more.

3) Discard the marinade and, if the skin is on, sprinkle it with the baking powder. This will help make it crispy. Roast on the indirect side of your grill or smoker at about 325°F until the fat is soft and tender and it reaches about 160°F (60 to 90- minutes). It's a good idea to put a drip pan under it if you don't have a good fat drainage system.

4) While the belly is cooking, assemble your favorite salad. Use mixed greens as a start, but have fun. Add boiled potato, green beans, hard boiled egg, whatever you love. Dress it with LT Italian, my wife's herbed Italian vinaigrette.

5) If you left the skin on, then move it over the direct heat, skin side down, for a few minutes, lid open, and heat until the skin is crunchy. Sprinkle salt on the skin.

This page was revised 8/21/2012

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