I’ve been watching Gordon Ramsay’s videos in Youtube this past few days and as I watch every videos of his, makes me salivates more on his dishes. What I’m eager to try if his Pressed Pork Belly but given the circumstances today I only have 3 hours to make it and Ramsay’s process will took about 8 to 9 hours. Given this third of the whole cooking time, I have to recreate his dish but got some ideas from the original recipe.
Instead of baking the the pork for two hours, I pressure cooked it (or pressure steam since the pork is not totally submerged into the water). Instead of using white wine, I used Emperador Light. I steamed the pork for an hour. Pop it in the freezer for 30 minutes (If given more time I would keep it longer in the freezer). Then pop it in the oven to cook the skin to crispiness. You can deep fry this and you’ll get Lechon Kawali. But I prefer roasting it until the skin becomes crispy crackling to avoid the extra delicious-high-blood-pressure method.
Ingredients
1 kg Pork Belly (I halved the pork slab and reserve the other half for dinner)
Salt
Pepper
Italian Seasoning
1 piece Head of Garlic, halved horizontally
Bunch Parsley
1 cup Emperador Light
6 cups Water
1 cup Water or Chicken Broth for the gravy (optional)
1 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce
Procedure
1. Generously season the pork with salt, pepper and Italian seasoning.
2. Place the bunch of parsley and garlic in the pressure cooker. Place the pork belly inside and add Emperador Light and water. Heat until it starts to simmer and cover with the lid. Pressure cooked for an hour.
3. Remove from pressure cooker and transfer on a plate. Place inside the freezer for 30 to 60 minutes. Reserved the juice from the pressure cooker.
4. Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Bring out the pork from the oven and score the skin in crisscross manner. Liberally rub the pork skin with sea salt. Pop the pork in the oven for 15 minutes. (This will help to brown the side of the pork.) Switch your oven to grilling mode and continue cooking for 30 to 40 minutes or until the skin of the pork becomes crispy crackling. (If you get near the oven, you’ll actually hear the popping sound the pork fat is making during the grilling mode.) Let the pork rest for 15 minutes.
5. Place the pork juice from the pressure cooker in a sauce pan. Add a cup of water or chicken broth (if you find the juice more than enough, do not add the water or broth) and add a teaspoon of Worcestershire Sauce. Reduce the sauce until you get a cup of a gravy. Strain to remove the solids. Serve roast pork with gravy.
HOW DOES IT TASTE?
The meat of the roast pork is tender and juicy. You could predominantly taste a hint of rosemary from the Italian seasoning. The meat has right amount and saltiness and spiciness from the black pepper. The gravy impart this bursting spicy savory flavor to the meat when dipped, but the meat alone is flavorful. This is the exciting part, the crispy crackling or the skin. The skin is really crispy. You could actually hear it like a roar of thunder as the person besides you chew on it. Combing the crispy crackling, meat and the gravy in a spoonful of bite, you’ll get this bursting flavor of savoriness and soft chewy and crispy cracking texture from the pork. Combine this with a cup of rice and you’ll surely have another cup.
