Canarian · Main · From the menu Huerta
Canarian black pork belly, apple, carrot
Panceta de cerdo negro canario, manzana, zanahoria
Belly from the island's black pig, cured overnight, braised until a skewer meets nothing, pressed under weight and then crisped to order. Apple for acidity, carrot cooked in the pork juices for sweetness.
The technique here is British-kitchen rather than Canarian: I could not find a Spanish source that publishes usable numbers for a pressed belly, so the cure, the braise and the press all come from chefs who have written it down properly. What is Canarian is the pig. Cerdo negro canario grows more slowly and carries more fat through the meat, and it takes the long cook in a way a supermarket belly does not.
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg pork belly, skin off, ideally cerdo negro canario
- 50 g coarse sea salt for the cure
- 1 tbsp brown sugar and 1 tsp crushed fennel seeds
- 4 cloves garlic, crushed, and 2 bay leaves
- About 1 litre chicken stock, enough to submerge
- 6 medium carrots
- 3 firm apples, two for purée and one raw
- 1 tbsp cider vinegar
- 30 g cold butter
- Thyme, salt, pepper
Method
- The day before, rub the belly with the salt, sugar, fennel and garlic and refrigerate 12 hours. Every chef who cures then rinses it off, so rinse it well and dry it thoroughly.
- Sit it in a deep tray with the bay and pour over enough chicken stock to submerge it completely. Cover tightly.
- Cook at 140 °C for three and a half hours. It is done when a skewer goes through with no resistance at all.
- Let it cool in its own stock for 30 minutes, then lift it out and keep the liquid.
- Lay the meat flat between two trays, put 4 to 5 kg of weight on top, and refrigerate overnight. Skim the set fat off the liquid in the morning and keep both.
- Cook two apples, peeled and chopped, with the vinegar and a splash of water until collapsing, then blend smooth with the butter and a pinch of salt.
- Cut the carrots into large pieces and cook them gently in the reserved pork liquid with thyme until tender and glazed, about 20 minutes. Add a little of the reserved fat if it looks dry.
- Cut the pressed belly into six neat squares. Colour them fat side down in a dry hot pan with no oil, then finish in a 180 °C oven for 15 minutes and probe to 65 °C.
- Rest two minutes. Plate the purée, the carrots and the pork, and finish with thin matchsticks of the raw apple over the top.
- Serve with papas arrugadas if you want the island on the plate as well.
Serve it with. Papas arrugadas, and mojo picón for anyone who wants it.