Braised Fennel pork belly tacos with pineapple salsa

These tacos are to die for. OK, maybe not quite literally but truly they are delicious.

So, where did the inspiration for these come from? Why pork belly? To be 100% honest with you, the inspiration for these tacos came purely from my love of tacos, which are their own food group - in my most authentic self’s opinion. Really though, tacos are quite the versatile food.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner?

CHECK

Beef, chicken, pork, fish, vegetable, and vegan?

DOUBLE-CHECK.

OK OK, so why pork belly? Well, that’s easy. Pork belly is genuinely just whole bacon. So essentially, these are bacon tacos.

Read that again.

Bacon. Tacos.

I digress. For all intents and purposes, pork belly is not the stomach of a pig. Pork belly is the slab of meat, with fat both on top and layered throughout, that runs along the underside of a pig. When this cut of meat is cooked with the love and care that all meals deserve this cut can become the hero for any number of delicious meals as the fat melts all of its goodness and flavor down into the meat. Even more so, if you like, you may crisp up the skin and use it as a way to mix up the overall texture for these lovely tacos.

Alright, now onto the important bits. What do you need to make these and how do you make them? Read on!

Our main ingredients: pork belly, fennel, onion, thyme, and garlic.

Braised Pork Belly Tacos with Pineapple Salsa

Joshua Aldridge | October 2019

prep time: Salsa - 20 Minutes | Pork Belly - 30 Minutes
cook time: Salsa - No cook, just store in fridge | Pork Belly - 3 - 3 1/2 Hours, 1/2 hour on stove and 2 1/2 - 3 hours in oven.
total time: ~ 4 hours
Needs: "fresh" cutting board, "dry" cutting board, sharp chef's knife, large roasting pan,and one mixing bowl.

Dry board is meant exclusively for Pork Belly

Ingredients:

Salsa:

(1 LB) Pre-Cubed Pineapple (drained)
(2) Plum Tomatoes
(1) Small Red Onion
(1) Medium Green Pepper
(1) Jalapeno
(1) Bunch Cilantro
(1) Lime

Seasonings: All to taste, measurements NOT exact

1 Tbsp Salt
1 1/2 Tbsp Pepper
1 Tbsp Paprika
1 1/4 Tbsp Cumin
1 1/4 Tbsp Garlic Powder (or 1 1/2 cloves of garlic, crushed)

Tacos:

(1) Medium Onion
(1) Large Bulb Fennel
(1) Bulb of Garlic
(1) Handful of Thyme
(1 1/2 LBs) Pork Belly
(1) package premade flour or corn tortillas of your desire.

Seasonings & Liquids: All to seasonings are to taste, measurements NOT exact. Liquid ingredients usage are explained below

4 Tbsp Salt
4 Tbsp Pepper
5 Tbsp Whole Black Peppercorns
4 Bay Leaves
5 Tbsp Fennel Seeds
3 Tbsp Coriander Seeds
4 Tbsp Cumin Seeds
5-6 Star Anise Pods
3 Tbsp Dill Weed
500mL White Wine
5-6 Cups of Chicken Stock

Instructions: You can prep and begin the cook for the pork belly prior to starting the salsa or you may prepare the salsa first. I prefer to prepare the salsa first then place it in the fridge so that all of the flavors have time to meet up and do their thing, collectively. 😊

(Plus, you can set some of the salsa aside and have some salsa and chips while you wait for the pork to cook.)

-- Pineapple Salsa

Core and dice tomatoes; dice bell pepper, pineapple, and onion; put all diced ingredients into the mixing bowl and add 1/2 of all seasonings. Give a quick mix of the ingredients and seasoning. NOTE - if you prefer fresh crushed garlic use it here instead of garlic powder.
Mince jalapeno; keep seeds for a little added heat if you so desire.
Add jalapenos to the mixing bowl, mix all incredients currently in the bowl. STOP HERE - TASTE CHECK, take a small spoonful of the salsa and taste it. Is the salt right? Does it need more cumin or paprika? Use this as a baseline - don't correct your seasoning just yet.
Chop cilantro, reserve a small amount of this chopped cilantro for later and add the remaining into the salsa bowl.
Juice one whole lime into the salsa and give a good thorough mix. FINAL TASTE CHECK - At this point correct your seasoning, add salt if necessary, paprika and cumin (again if you think it is necessary.)
Cover salsa and place into the fridge.

Pork Belly Tacos

Place pork belly on "dry" cutting board, cut diagonal slits into the fatty skin of pork belly. Once complete on this angle, turn 180 degrees and cut diagonal slits once more. The finished product of your labor should create a crosshatch or diamond pattern .
Excluding the star anise, corriander seeds, cumin seeds, and peppercorns, use all seasonings to season the pork belly. When doing this be sure to open up the slits along the fat and really push the seasonings down into those slits. Flip the meat to its meaty side and be sure to season this portion of the cut as well. Set the dry board and the pork belly aside as you prep the braising liquid.
With a clean, "fresh", cutting board coarsely chop fennel, onion, and 4 cloves of garlic.
Preheat Oven to 280 degrees fahrenheit, or 300 degrees if your oven doesn't go that low.
Over medium heat, heat your roasting pan w/ olive oil and sweat down the fennel and onion adding a touch of salt and pepper to help bring out the natural flavors. Once 3/4 of the way done in this process, add garlic and thyme. (Garlic burns quickly so adding them at the beginning of this step wouldn't be smart).
Clear space in the bottom of the pan and place the pork belly, fat side down, into the pan to begin rendering down the fat. Be sure to press the meat down and into the pan to help ensure that the all the fat has a proper chance to render down.
After about two to three minutes, flip the pork belly and add the remaining seasonings (star anise, corriander seeds, cumin seeds, and peppercorns).
Let the seasonings become heated in the pan for about a minute and then add white wine to the pan, reduce wine down until only 1/4 of it is left.
Add chicken stock, be careful not to fully submerge the pork belly in liquid only fill the pan up to where the fat begins. Bring this to a hard-simmer.
Once the liquid contents of the pan are at this hard-simmer/low-boil cover with foil and place into your preheated oven for 3 to 3 1/2 hours.
About 30 minutes before removing the pork from the oven, wrap a couple of stacks of tortillas, no more than 6 per stack, in aluminum foil packets and place them in the oven to warm through.
After 3 to 3 1/2 hours pull the pork belly from the oven. On a clean and large cutting board, pull apart and chop pork belly into smaller bite sized bits. Don't forget to pull out the tortillas!

Tacos Assemble!

Assemble your taco by placing two shells, one on top of the other, on a plate. Fork on a generous portion of pork belly onto the shells, sprinkle on a bit of the reserved cilantro, and spoon over pineapple salsa to top.

EN-FREAKING-JOY!

This is how I cook one of my favorite dishes and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

With love,

Joshua

“If I had to narrow my choice of meats down to one for the rest of my life, I am quite certain that meat would be pork.”

— James Beard

BONUS - Fennel Pork Gravy

Joshua Aldridge | October 2019

So, we've created these lovely and sumptious pork belly tacos, but you look into the roasting pan and see there is a pure wealth of leftover roasted veg and braising liquid that is genuinely just begging to be made new again, to be reused in the best of ways.

Well, here is how we do that. Here is how you take all that goodness and make a gravy for another dish later in the week that needs some type of sauce to make it complete. Whether it be roasted pork loin, pork chops, or heck it could even be some cut of beef and mash. This gravy will pair with it in all the best of tasty ways.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10-20 minutes
Total time: ~ 30 minutes
Needs: Left over braising veggies, leftover braising liquid, sieve, 1 Tsp butter, 1 1/2 Tbsp flour, and sauce pan.

Tip - ALWAYS, ALWAYS, ALWAYS be stirring your sauce. This will help ensure separation doesn't have a chance of happening. Furthermore, if this sauce is being made to serve at a later time, store in the refrigerator and heat over the stove using gentle heat and stir until whole and heated. Enjoy!

Instructions:

Place sieve over sauce pan. Take all veggies from roasting pan and place them into the sieve, begin to push these through. Continue pushing these veggies through the sieve as best as you can until there is very little left of what use to be whole vegetables. Scrape the bottom of the sieve to make sure you get all the little bits into the saucepan. (The only things that will really be left are the bits of vegetable and thyme stems that just simply wont breakdown - this is okay. Discard them into the trash).
Over low to medium heat, heat sieved contents in the sauce pan with butter and flour. Once this has become something like a paste begin to add, little by little, the braising liquid and consistently stir.
As you stir the sauce will thicken. Continue to add the braising liquid, again little by little, until your sauce reaches the liquid consistency of your liking.