Post by gloobombking on Jun 22, 2022 15:09:07 GMT -6
I noticed you boys were missing some good Hillbilly recipes so I figured I might try and solve that problem. Yep, you read it right, Baked Pork Belly----or maybe Sow Belly depending who you might be talking to and where in the Ozarks you might be. It sounds like a made up dish from Granny Clampett but it is a real dish that will blow your socks clean off your feet. Now there are not many REAL hillbilly cooks. As they say, there are Hillbilly Cooks and then there is Peckerwoods. So........I will simple this recipe down so any of you Peckerwoods will be able to enjoy the Gourmet meal of the Ozarks.
You will need a good center cut slab of Pork Belly. Ask your store butcher or the guy at your local meat market. He will know what you want. You will also need some Fennel seeds or powder, a large yellow onion, Kosher salt, garlic, about a cup and a half of chicken broth and a cup or more of Potlikker. Now for you Peckerwoods that don't know what Potlikker is, it is the juice left over from cooking your Collard Greens.
To make this easy, get yourself a bag of Frozen Collard Greens at the supermarket. In a large pot, add garlic, onion, red pepper flakes, chicken stock and a little water. Simmer this for about an hour to an hour and a half, until your greens are tender. Save the juice, that is your Potlikker you will use with your Pork Belly. As for the grits, you folks might as well just go for the instant kind and follow the directions. Add some fine chopped green onion for some added zip. Trying to explain cooking grits the right way would take another thread.
In a baking pan, add some olive oil and your chopped garlic and onion with about a teaspoon of fennel seeds or powder, depending on what you have. On top of the stove saute this mixture just until you start to smell the garlic, remove from the heat and lay your pork belly in with the skin up. Lightly----and I mean Lightly score the skin in a diamond shape. DO NOT cut through the skin, just score it. Rub a table spoon of olive oil over the skin and sprinkle well with your Kosher Salt. The olive oil will help hold it where it needs to be. Add Chicken stock/Potlikker to almost cover the meat but NOT the skin. Bake at 280F for about 2 hours. Finish for 30 min. at 400F or until the skin is brown and crispy. Place the Belly on a platter and rest it for about 15 min and then slice. Serve it up with your drained Collards, Grits and some crispy Cornbread with butter and honey. One last thing---------NO sugar in the cornbread Peckerwoods. That is a big NO-NO. Now to finish this off the right way, you should serve some home made blackberry cobbler along with some home made Ice Cream. I warn you, this meal when consumed will make you mellow and likely nothing will be accomplished the rest of the day. I suggest this meal as an evening meal so you can kick your shoes off, relax and drift off for a good nights sleep. If you have questions please ask and I will help if I can. This meal is hard to beat and if you get it right, it is just about as good as ham, biscuits and red eye gravy.
