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Pork Belly

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Pork belly is a fairly versatile, if slightly overpriced, cut of meat with which you can have a lot of fun. It takes some careful cooking, but the payout is worth it in the end.

How to Cook Pork Belly: The Basics

First, I have to give a shout-out to the Aloha Instant Pot Community on Facebook for the basics of this method. It is a two-step process, but will give you the results you want every time. This will need a pressure cooker or Instant Pot.
  1. Place about a cup and a half of water in the bottom of the Instant Pot.
  2. Add the trivet and a steam basket.
  3. Place your strips of pork belly in the basket. If they are large or an entire slab, you could probably lay them directly on the trivet.
  4. Secure the lid. 
  5. Set it to manual pressure for 13-17 minutes, depending on how thick your slices were. The thinner they are, the less time they will need to cook. We had two nice thick slabs, right out of the freezer, and fifteen minutes was a touch on the low side. They were cooked through, but not quite tender enough. When we did thin strips, defrosted, fifteen minutes was too long.
  6. Allow for a manual release.
  7. Carefully remove the pork belly and cut it into bite-sized pieces.
  8. Now, transfer it to an air fryer and cook at five-minute intervals, shaking and rotating pieces as needed to get the full rendering of the fat and the crispy outsides, about 13-15 minutes. If you don't have an air fryer, placing the pork under the broiler will work as well. Again, just make sure to monitor it and flip it as needed.

Pork Belly and Herbs Salad

Patrick got the inspiration for this recipe from (yes, we're bringing it up again) Lilette in New Orleans. We
used a version of Julia Child's vinagrette from Mastering the Art of French Cooking, adding some strawberries to the mix. Then we made a simple salad of basil, mint, and butter lettuce. 




Lechon Kawali

Hands down, my favorite pork belly use is lechon kawali, and I love the lechon that is on special at Kuhio Grille some days. I just learned that they have moved into the old Liko Lehua location on Pauahi Street. I'm disappointed that Liko Lehua isn't there any more (you can still get the butters online and their Kaumana space will be reopening soon), but pretty darn happy that I don't have to travel over to the clusterfluffle that is Maka'ala Street to get some awesome food.

One of the key ingredients in lechon, besides the pork, is the patis. I really prefer patis to other fish sauces, and this video will explain the differences is you are not already familiar with them. It's just a little more on the salt side than the funk side that, to me, you get with Thai fish sauce. For tonight's version, I made a simple dipping sauce of lime, patis, and soy. It was a little funky when tasted straight, but on the raw tomatoes, with a little rice, it was awesome.

Lechon is a very simple dish. You start with the simple steamed or pressure cooked pork, followed by broiling or air frying. Then you throw it together with some tomatoes, onions, and a dash of patis or the sauce described above for the salt. Serve that up with some rice or potato mac salad and you won't be disappointed. In its simplicity, this treatment really lets the pork's flavor and texture shine.

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