no, no - not the cola. we’re talkin’ rob cox. a professional cook here in town. i love this guy for too many reasons to list. but if i were to make a list, on there somewhere would be both his exuberant passion for food, and that he’s a fun friend to have around because we get to talk about tongues and testicles - that is, of the lamb and pig persuasion. yes, he’s a huge fergus henderson fan. fergus of the restaurant ’st. john‘ - the very restaurant that my tony bourdain and my mario batali go on and on about.
i once read somewhere that if you want to get a chef all hot and bothered, just whisper pork belly in his ear. although this was not my MO with rob - cause as great as he is i’m like really old compared to him and not single (hi baby!) - our conversation led us to the belly of the pig and i found myself ordering an 8 lb skin-on slab from niman ranch and well, when rob stopped in over the weekend, said belly was 24 hours into it’s 72 hour cure.
(rob in action and yes, that IS a wind up mario batali doll)
so rob comes into my kitchen with about 4 books (one of which was an imported and rare ’marco pierre white’ book just for me!) under one arm and a big red metal tool box in his other hand. the guy’s tool box is filled with knives, whisks, truffle shavers - you name it. i mean is that cool or what? by cool i mean sexy, but let’s just call it cool and then call it a day. but rob came for a purpose and that was to cook. and so while opening my pantry and fridge, perusing the possibilities, i proudly showed him my belly. (this post has way too much excellent potential for sexual innuendo)…
so first thing rob does is he takes the pork and cuts off about a 2 inch strip from one side. then that goes back in the refrigerator to continue doing what a pork belly does when it’s been heavily coated with some serious spices, salt and sugar (much more on all that coming up next week). and then he was off and running and i was just trying to pretend that i could be of some earthly assistance.
what you see at the top is an oven roasted pork belly square with an apple walnut salad and puree of bread and arugula. the pretty purple stuff is some of my leftover blueberry gastrique that i kept forcing rob to use. (thanks rob.) the walnut apple salad was made using orange blossom water, shallots, garlic, verjus and blis maple syrup. we finished the dish off with a really wonderful smoked salt that i crushed using the side of my little ‘point and shoot’ cannon. i am so awesome.
we actually did the pork three ways, two for this dish. one in the oven and the second on my super-duper-turbo-kick-ass-infrared-ceramic plated grill. the grilled piece tasted better, but the meat didn’t look as attractive, so in the name of visuals it got second billing below - but it had the better skin crunch going on by far. i just wanted to impress you right off with the better pic.
next up rob decided to do oeufs en cocotte - or baked eggs. so he took some of the raw pork belly and diced it into lardons and then we placed that in a pan and began to render out the fat, adding water to aid the process. a ramekin was coated with some black truffle butter and then the lardons went in next followed by 2 carefully cracked eggs and a generous grating of parmigiano, being it was the only cheese in the house - and breadcrumbs. the ramekin went into a water bath and as we were about to place it in the oven…
we realized what was missing!
more truffle butter! what could we have been thinking? more butter + more truffles = more better!
eggs how i love thee. but then to surround you by truffled up butter, pork belly and parmigiano, i am just in awe…
i will say that a little pork belly goes a very long way. kind of like foie gras. but damn if it isn’t just an amazing cut of meat.
pork belly… it’s not just what’s for bacon anymore…
26 responses so far ↓
1 Dan // Mar 19, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I don’t know if I’ve told you recently enough; but I love your blog like a fat kid loves cupcake!
2 Diana // Mar 19, 2008 at 9:03 pm
I hereby declare the fourth meal of the day… BACON! (Hey Mom, what’s for bacon?) But final pic = my fave.
3 Mary Coleman // Mar 20, 2008 at 2:26 am
You never cease to amaze me!
4 Donald // Mar 20, 2008 at 2:49 am
Wow…just, just, wow!
You had a chef in your kitchen making belly and suggestive inuendo?
We’re not worthy.
Wow. Tell us more on how it tasted!
Thanks for sharing!
5 amy @ minimally invasive // Mar 20, 2008 at 3:18 am
This is great. Love it. Wonder if the guy at the local pizza joint would consider cooking in my kitchen?
I made pork belly over the weekend, too. My first time and I’ll tell ya, it won’t be my last, especially with this post as inspiration!
6 Robert // Mar 20, 2008 at 6:19 am
Fret,
Somehow those smoke molecules found the pork, you cant fight this, just let it flow………
There still may be time for the other 7 1/2 pounds.
7 Jennifer Hess // Mar 20, 2008 at 6:22 am
Wow, that is some SEXY belly.
8 Ponyboat // Mar 20, 2008 at 6:59 am
Mmm, this veg not sold on Babe’s belly, but the salad looks Mi-T-Fine. And those eggs! I am going to dream about those eggs like I have been dreaming about the damn truffle popcorn! So hot! So crunchy! So lubricated!
9 Mari // Mar 20, 2008 at 7:25 am
Thank you for finally enlightening us ladies as to how one lures hot young chefs into our kitchens!!!
Pork belly, eh? There’s no turning back now!
10 claudia // Mar 20, 2008 at 7:45 am
mari - pork belly is unfreakinbelievable stuff. hit the gym before indulging. and after. as for rob, if i were 15 years younger and single i’d attack him. he’s cute, funny and SMART. and the man can cook… nice combo!
and ladies - he’s SINGLE
pony - eggs were fabbo. no crunch but sheer deliciousness.
jennifer - just you wait…
robert - i hate to disappoint you but it’s a smoke free belly
amy - pray tell!!!
donald - this was just the beginning. but it tasted GREAT. rich and meaty and the cure flavor is amazing. but again - just wait and see what’s coming!
mary - back atcha girlfriend!
diana - better in theory than practice. unless we run like you do each day. for bacon everyday - you gotta exercise HARD.
dan - so so nice of you to say… really. thank you. really.
11 ntsc // Mar 20, 2008 at 8:02 am
I have no idea how I found this place, but I’m not leaving.
Don’t have a pork belly currently in the fridge, but there is about 3 lbs of bacon and 3 lbs of pancetta in the freezer from the last one.
I also have what started as an 18 lb fresh ham hanging in the basement, but that won’t be ready for a long time (I hope).
12 lucy // Mar 20, 2008 at 9:07 am
so you’ll hate me for this, but i’m not a big pork fan. i know; i’m sorry. however, those baked eggs look so good i wish i would wake up tomorrow to find them sitting on my breakfast table. yum yum.
13 Jessica // Mar 20, 2008 at 10:23 am
That looks great! So fancy too!
14 Klinde // Mar 20, 2008 at 11:27 am
Must. Quit. Drooling.
15 ts // Mar 20, 2008 at 3:47 pm
Speaking of pork bellies, where did you get the Mario toy?! I want one! =D
16 melissa // Mar 20, 2008 at 5:14 pm
oh man, pork belly. oddly enough, I just had it for the first time a few weeks ago. in ramen! authentic, real tokyo (transplanted to socal) ramen. I had no idea what REAL ramen was until now. but the pork belly. you can pay a few extra bucks and get braised pork belly tonkotsu ramen. oh.my.lord. heaven.
17 Nina // Mar 21, 2008 at 5:05 am
My first visit to your blog and even just a few seconds, I have gained a few pounds by just looking at your beautiful food.Mmmmm.
18 democommie // Mar 21, 2008 at 6:09 am
Claudia:
Do you think that if I got some pork belly I could lure one of those nice lady cooks to my house–when I have a little more than a single burner hot plate to work with? It would just be for the food, honest!!
That book I mentioned a while back, “The Last Chinese Chef” has a whole thing going on about pork fat. I think you would enjoy it.
19 michelle @ TNS // Mar 21, 2008 at 9:55 am
now i’m even more pissed that i couldn’t find any pork belly when i was searching for it a few weeks back. damn it all to hell!
i think you should visit me and we’ll order pounds and pounds of pork belly and have my CIA-grad, bobby flay sommelier brother-in-law come over and cook us dish after dish of delicious, delicious bacon.
20 robin (caviar and codfish) // Mar 21, 2008 at 2:36 pm
God damn, those dishes look good! And I’m so jealous that you got to read that MPW cookbook!
If you like pork belly, next time you go to NYC you have to have the pork belly steamed bun sandwiches from MomoFuko if you haven’t ever had them. Oh pork belly, I love you so!
21 Julie // Mar 22, 2008 at 11:16 am
I have to admire a woman who’s so inspired by a conversation about pork bellies that she goes an orders a whole 8-lb slab of it.
22 claudia // Mar 22, 2008 at 3:14 pm
julie - it was my only skin-on option!!! i swear!!!
robin - i did go and it was awesome!
michelle - sounds like a plan. and then we will die and be dead.
demo - my guess is you’d get some sweet lady over there to cook on that one burner for/with you… as for the book, i am inundated with books right now but one of these days…
nina - welcome! hope to see you drop by again!!!
melissa - that sounds out of this world!
ts - isn’t that thing cool? just google batali wind-up…
klinde - it was all totally drool worthy - no doubt.
jessica - fancy shmancy. it’s all in the plating!
lucy - no pork? ever? wow. the pig is the best animal to eat. it just is… i could make a believer out of you…
23 Traci @ Soup of The Day // Mar 24, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Baked eggs are one of my favorites! I haven’t made them for a while either. I usually just do fresh herbs, but I like the truffle butter idea too.
24 fluffernutter // Mar 25, 2008 at 2:54 pm
I love Rob Cox — he’s not just hawt, he’s hawt AND he cooks. But you didn’t say whether you survived this excessive gastronomic experience. I nearly perished from cholesterol just reading about it.
25 mari // Mar 26, 2008 at 8:10 am
Don’t be flaunting the fact RC is single to me! You’re just trying to tempt me to Nashville, aren’t you?!
26 annie // Mar 27, 2008 at 5:15 pm
Oh my dear Lord. The man. The pork. The kitchen. That dish is like the most extravagant, adult nursery food I can imagine. Comforting, sexy, all good.
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