This might be one of the more rewarding things I've ever done. In a previous posting, I noted the three different cures we put on the fresh pork belly. A regular cure, and to that cure one part of the belly had many more spices added and the other had blue cheese added. The smell on the blue cheese one, when the food saver bag was opened, was so amazing. It's such a natural mixture in my mind, pork and blue cheese.
After a rinse, a soak and thoroughly dried, the cured bellies where put into our smoker and slow smoked for several hours. It was a cold night. Bringing these steaming, smoking slabs of love into the kitchen was a pure moment of absolute pleasure. First by just the aroma filling the room, then admiring the color and the beauty of each piece. The fat cap was quivering and almost completely see-through. The flavors of each where extremely distinctive and special. Salty. But, each very special and hope for future pork belly adventures. The blue cheese cure worked so well, I can't wait to apply to other cuts.
One lucky customer got a piece freshly cut from a slab, still hot from the smoker and added to their appetizer of Scallops and Bacon with Toasted Blue Cheese Polenta, Balsamic Braised Red Cabbage, Candied Pears and Poblano Honey.
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