On 2/15/2014 at 8:55 AM, David Ross said:On 2/15/2014 at 10:45 PM, Kerry Beal said:Won't win any awards for pretty - but this is the last pork belly I made - following the link provided by Franci here. Poached, fried, poached again in tea, steamed. Yummy!
That looks delicious. I never would have thought of poaching a pork belly but I will now.
Really? Lots of ways that pork belly is cooked by poaching/simmering, in various cuisines. That is, if poaching = gentle simmering (as both Larousse and Davidson say is the general understanding). If one holds that 'poaching' is done at a temperature clearly below boiling point, at 160-185ºF and is different from 'simmering', then the recipe used by/referred to by Kerry Beal via Franci SIMMERS the pork belly, not poach it. The recipe uses both terms but it is clear (and appropriate) that the pork belly is cooked in liquid at a temperature such that very gentle agitation/bubbling occurs.
Dong Po pork (that recipe) is a famous Chinese dish. Perhaps you have not had it or heard of it? Have you also had things like Kow Yuk or Peranakan preparations of pork belly? See here for some links in the recent updates (i.e. merged thread) to the pork belly thread - you participated there also, but I'm sure it has slipped your mind. Franci posted about that recipe she used there too. Some babi pongteh in this post here (scroll down) and here; and some babi chin in this post here (scroll to the bottom of that post).
Another way of using pork belly was recently shown in this post here - in rice congee, where the belly slices were simmered for a while before adding the rice and continuing.
ETA: One version of dong po pork I made last year was here (scroll down to the 5th and 6th sub-entries).
