Curried Pork Belly Sandwich with Pickled Veggies

Posted on | March 19, 2010 | 15 Comments |

sandwich 082-1

If I had any kind of poetic talent, I’d write a hymn about pork belly. It is the most wonderful food in the world. Some of the fat layers melt away once cooked, rendering the most tender piece of meat with a buttery layer of fat. I have no words to describe the texture and the taste other than Heavenly! I love this cut of meat in all forms. Bacon is born from pork belly, need I say more?

But why does everything that tastes so damn good always bad for us? Pork belly by no means is the healthiest of foods out there. So I haven’t been eating a whole lot of it lately. Just once in a couple of months to satisfy the cravings. If you are a fan of the Live to Eat page on facebook, you’d probably know that I am planning to go back on South Beach Diet Phase 1 in a week. So I am trying to eat as much “bad stuff” as I can before that. Not really the smartest move, but a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do right?

BTW, before I get into the recipe, a request. If you know of any good SBD friendly veg/non-veg recipes, please leave a comment with a link or ideas. I will be working on my SBD phase1 menu plan next week and some folks have expressed interest in going on SBD, but the biggest blocker is the lack of variety for vegetarians. I’ve posted a few ideas here: http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=79276219562&topic=14154, but still looking for more. Thanks!

Okay, so, ready for the not so SBD or Veg friendly recipe of the day? A pork belly curry makes a great sandwich stuffer because a) a small amount goes a long way. b) the thick oily gravy is your spread, no additional condiments needed and c) it is pork belly, it is good with everything! To add some crunch and to feel good about having veggies, I added some pickled vegetables. By pickled vegetables I mean I cut carrots, cucumbers, onions and green chilies and marinated these in white vinegar and salt for 2-3 hours. These are delicious addition to any sandwich. I also stuffed some hard boiled eggs to the sandwich, just because eggs go so well with pork. So, that’s the ingredient list. Curried pork belly can be made the way you like. I will give you the version I used anyway, just because it turned out so awesome! it is similar to some of my other pork recipes, but not exactly the same.

sandwich

Curried Pork Belly

Ingredients

1 lb pork belly, boneless (Sold as slide pork), cut into bite sized pieces
1 tbsp oil
3 whole star anise
1/4 cup sliced shallots
4 cloves garlic
2 tbsp thinly sliced ginger pieces
2 tsp red chili powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
2 tbsp vinegar
2 tbsp dark soy sauce
Salt to taste
1/2 cup diced red onions
a few curry leaves

Method

Place enough water to cover the meat in a pressure cooker and bring to a boil. Add the pork and bring back to a boil, boil for two minutes. Drain the water and rinse off the scum from the meat pieces and the cooker. Drain and keep the pork pieces aside.

Place the ginger, garlic and shallots in a mortar and crush with a pestle to bruise all the ingredients to release the flavor.

Wipe the cooker off with a paper towel and return to the stove. Heat a tbsp of oil in the pressure cooker..When the oil is hot, add the star anise. Then add the crushed ingredients. Sauté till the ingredients start to brown. Add the chili, coriander and turmeric powders and mix well. Reduce the heat and sauté till the spices start to change color. Add the pork pieces and sauté for a few minutes.

Add the soy sauce, vinegar and 1 cup water to the cooker and mix well. Close the pressure cooker and cook on high till the first whistle (when the pressure cooker has reached the full pressure). Reduce the heat to medium and cook for 8 minutes. Let the cooker cool down before opening it.

Open the cooker and there should be lot of melted fat floating in the gravy. Transfer as much of the fat as you can to a large sauté pan. Even if there is some gravy in it, its fine. Heat the pan till all the gravy disappears and the oil remains. Add the onions and curry leaves and sauté till soft.

Transfer the pork pieces from the gravy with a slotted spoon into the pan. Sauté till the outside of the pork pieces are browned. Reduce the heat to low and pour the remaining gravy over. Mix well and remove from the heat. The gravy should be really thick by now, if it looks too watery, reduce the liquid down to a thick gravy.

Pickled Vegetables

Peel and cut a cucumber and a carrot to thin long strips. Cut a red onion into strips of the same length. Slice 2-3 green chilies into quarters lengthwise. Place all the veggies in a bowl. Add 1 tsp salt and pour enough vinegar to cover the vegetables completely. Cover and keep aside for at least 2 hours.

Curried Pork Belly Sandwich

(The above portion should make four sandwiches)

Ingredients

Bread – for 4 sandwiches
Curried Pork belly (see above)
Pickled vegetables, drained from the liquid , as needed
4 hard boiled eggs, sliced thin
a few cilantro leaves

Method

You can use the bread of your choice. I used regular French loaf. Slice and toast the bread till a little brown and crispy. Spread some of the gravy from the curried pork on both sides. Arrange a few egg slices and pickled veggies on one slice. Top with a few pork belly pieces and some cilantro leaves. Cover with the other slice, open wide and take a big bite!

Have a great weekend!

Category: Pork, Sandwiches and Wraps, Uncategorized

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« « Mutton Chukka (Tamil Style Mutton Dry Fry)| South Beach Diet Phase 1 Menu for Vegetarians (No Egg Version) » »

Comments

15 Responses to “Curried Pork Belly Sandwich with Pickled Veggies”

musical
March 19th, 2010 @ 6:19 pm
Reply

Those pickled vegetables liven up any sammich!
sra
March 19th, 2010 @ 8:48 pm
Reply

Pork belly When we went to Goa, we tried sorpotel, and The Spouse went grey after he was told what it consisted of, and didn’t speak for the rest of the meal.

Sig, I dunno if you’ve seen my latest post, it’s eggitarian and I was wondering if it would suit SBD.

http://whenmysoupcamealive.blogspot.com/2010/03/egg-spinach-baked-with-nut-crust.html
Happy Cook
March 20th, 2010 @ 1:02 am
Reply

One think i don’t like is pork belly, back at home when my mom made them none of us kids touched it. Maybe just the gravy i think.
Still that dandwitchlooks so so good.
I so wish i had the character for going for diets like you. I start and i give up in 2 weeks.
usha
March 20th, 2010 @ 3:55 am
Reply

Just became a fan of Libe2Eat on facebook! Sandwich looks yummilicious! Good luck with the diet!
Anu
March 20th, 2010 @ 5:36 am
Reply

Sig,

For phase 1 vegetarians, there is also the pessarattu (green moong/ pachcha payyar) only dosa, there is the maharastrian ussal with moth gram or moong beans sprouts.And also the low fat pakodas (besan pakodas made in appam chatti).
Mamatha
March 20th, 2010 @ 10:17 am
Reply

Sig, I made your Pork Ularthiyathu with Pork Belly about 2-3 weeks ago and oh my goodness, I was having cravings for it for almost a week after that. I tried the same recipe with chicken and that just didn’t cut it. The sandwich looks delicious and I love the pickled veggies. Pork Belly is perfectly SBD-friendly. Did you know that most of the fat in Pork Belly and Bacon is mono-unsaturated (like olive oil)?
nags
March 20th, 2010 @ 4:52 pm
Reply

so the final production is out! enjoyed watching the teases on your daily pic blog. although i don’t eat pork, this definitely looks delicious to me!
Sabrina
March 21st, 2010 @ 2:23 pm
Reply

That’s a Banh Mi, a Vietnamese sandwich, isnt it?
Cynthia
March 21st, 2010 @ 7:16 pm
Reply

Oh baby, baby, a pork sandwich to drool over.

You know, just this past week I was talking to a friend and talking about pork belly and I thought of you. I always remember you saying that you like pork belly. When I saw your opening line about writing a hymn, I could not help laughing out loud.
Raaga
March 21st, 2010 @ 10:59 pm
Reply

Here are some:

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2007/12/elaborate-breakfasts-are-only-on.html

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2008/06/mixed-dal-dosa.html

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2008/11/instant-guilt-free-tayir-vadai.html

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2009/03/kidney-bean-green-chickpea-patties.html

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2007/07/gatte-ki-kadhi.html

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2008/07/soyabean-curry.html

http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2009/03/zucchini-turnip-stir-fry.html
http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/search/label/sundal
http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2009/03/lal-lobia-curry.html
http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2008/07/spring-onion-jhunka.html
http://chefatwork.blogspot.com/2009/02/gatte-ka-saag.html

OK… those were a lot
Raaga
March 22nd, 2010 @ 2:59 am
Reply

Do you have a comment moderator? I left you loads of veggie SBD links and I can’t find them
Miri
March 22nd, 2010 @ 7:11 am
Reply

I love the way you wax eloquent about your fav pieces of meat and I’m not even a pork eater (can’t digest it at all)!

I thought Kalyn of Kalyns Kitchen had a lot of veggie SBD recipes?

Miri
Rina
March 23rd, 2010 @ 8:03 am
Reply

Beautiful pics..nice filling sandwich..can’t ask for more..BTW me too thinking of getting into phase 1 of SBD, after my 2 months post delivery..so will keep connected w/ SBD freindly recipes..
Joe
September 10th, 2010 @ 8:49 pm
Reply

Nice! I want to make this.
Deviah
October 10th, 2011 @ 10:45 pm
Reply

When will you make pandhi curry?