Pressure Cooker Pork Belly

Buta no kakuni (豚の角煮）

Our newspaper (The Oregonian) issues a section called  FOODDAY every Tuesday. In the January 11th edition I read an interesting article about ‘IN’ and ‘OUT’ of foods for 2011 .  ‘Pork Belly is in the ‘OUT’ list. Ooo Kei, I’m against trend without realizing it. The article said “…think of this as our culinary wish list of things we’d love to see happening in the kitchen in 2011.” I’m curious; who gets decide what’s IN and what’s OUT? Is there a committee for this? If so how many members in it?

Here is Oregonian FOODDAY’s OUT list with my take on them:

• Pork belly-I agree somewhat. The use of bacon went too far. One time experience of eating a bacon donut is enough for me.
• Energy drinks-I don’t drink so I have no comment.
• Smoked paprika-I didn’t know that existed. I am perfectly satisfied with regular paprika.
• Food reality shows on TV- My favorite cooking show is Iron Chef America but the voice over on old Iron Chef is funny too.
• Stunt food-I still have not tried KFC’s Double Down and again I seldom go to fast food places.
• Vague, watered-down labels- I’m sucker for label  like ‘local’ or ‘free range’  I thought I was supporting local farmers.
• Cupcakes- I just started warming up to the cuteness of cupcakes last month and now it’s OUT?  I purchased  lots of cupcake cases and I ‘m not afraid to use them.

Thanks to electric pressure cooker, this meat is incredibly soft, like melt-in-your-mouth kind. I used to have a stove top pressure cooker but I can’t find it. Probably buried deep in the freezer.

My husband bought this Cuisinart electric pressure cooker. Easier to use than stove top one. I recommend this to everyone.

Ingredients serve 2 to 4

• Pork belly 800g- try to cut in big square chunks (kaku means square/rectangle) . Do not separate meat from fat.
• Sake 2 cups
• Ginger 80g skin and slice
• Water 1 cup
• 1 long green onion stalk
• Brown sugar 3-4 tablespoon
• Soy sauce 3-4 tablespoon
• Small green onion thinly slice length wise then put in ice cold water for few minutes

Directions

1. In electric pressure cooker, brown meat using the  ‘Browning‘ mode
   
2. Add sake, water and ginger then cook on high pressure for a few minutes then cook using the low pressure setting for another 45 minutes. Turn off cooker. Let it cool (do not skip this step). This allows the flavor to penetrate the meat.
3. After cool down, add brown sugar and soy sauce and pressure cook on low pressure for about 15 minutes.
4. Put the iced green onion on top of pork and serve

Steamed vegetables and cooked rice complete this meal.

I guess I should list FOODDAY’s ‘IN’ food list here too:

• Meatballs
• Spices, flavor/health connection-Spices don’t just make food taste better. They have powerful healing properties that may help fight illness.
• Korean flavors- Yes to bibmibap and bulgogi!
• Real cooking on TV-They recommending “Avec Eric”
• Unusual grains and seeds-ancient grains farro and spelt. Also sprouted seeds like cashews and chia.
• Homemade pie

In the end I have to say “whatever”. Whether its trendy or not, I just cook what I want to make in the moment (I do try to buy produce in season though) and hopefully I make someone happy along with myself.