CORN BELLIES ... ?

A continuation of  "Fun with Pork Belly - in Multiple parts"

OK, now that we got the most common use of pork belly out of the way, BACON,  lets move to something a little more interesting. Corn Bellies anyone?

Here is a nice piece of pork belly. Brined for 2 days.

Brine recipe:

2 quarts H2O

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 cups kosher salt

6 juniper berries

6 cloves

6 black pepper corns

small cinnamon stick

1 TBS honey powder

1/2 tsp cardamom

red pepper

I will use this for a couple applications so I cut a piece off to use here.

This piece of belly was put on the smoker at 205deg.F for 4hrs., the last hour was wrapped in foil to make a bit more tender. Sugar maple wood was used.

After belly is cooled, I cut into pieces and inserted corn dog sticks ( yes - that's where we are going with this! ).

These pieces are then flash fried in peanut oil to crisp up outside and warm the inside.

Now they are going to be dipped in a batter, any corn dog batter will work. The batter I use leans a bit more towards a corn muffin batter - sweet with a touch of maple syrup. Feel free to try any corn batter you like. I then fry them in a mix of peanut oil and lard.

If you like corn dogs, you must try this! Crunchy sweet corn coating around salty, smoky pork belly - the pork meat has a nice chew while the fat just melt in you mouth, delicious. For me the perfect dipping sauce is grape jelly mixed with wasabi paste, sweet and hot and I go hot!

Enjoy!

Next up - BELLY WELLIES


Cheers.