Cookbook # 35 - The New Midwestern Table
I’ll be taking the rest of October off from Project Cookbook, since this weekend I have a potluck on Sunday, and I’m making my mom’s poundcake recipe for it, which isn’t difficult but is fairly time-consuming and dirty-dish-creating. Then I’m going to Canada 10/18-10/25 for a few days R&R and then to the Surrey International Writers’ Conference. I look forward to getting back on the cookbook horse come November, though—hopefully I’ll be able to find some nice, cozy recipes to help brighten the Great Dark that looms over Seattle every November through January.
This week I made two recipes from The New Midwestern Table by Amy Thielen (2013). I’ve never lived in the Midwest and haven’t even visited the Upper Midwest that this cookbook focuses on for any length of time, so this was an exploration of unfamiliar territory for me. (Though I do know my way around a pork belly.) Both of these recipes turned out quite well, and I will for sure be making pork belly this way again.
Black Maple-Glazed Pork Belly
½ tsp sugar
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 lbs skinless fresh pork belly
6 cloves garlic, smashed
3 dried bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
½ c. maple syrup
¼ c. balsamic vinegar
1 T soy sauce
1-inch piece of fresh ginger, smashed
Mix together the sugar, 1 ½ tsp salt, and 1 tsp pepper. Rub into both sides of the pork belly. Leave to cure, refrigerated, for 2 hours or as long as overnight.
Preheat the oven to 325 F.
Blot the moisture from the pork belly and set it, fat-side up, on a rack inside a large rectangular baking dish or a roasting pan. Scatter 4 of the garlic cloves, the bay leaves, and the rosemary sprigs around the pork belly, and pour in enough water to reach just below the rack. Cover the pan tightly with aluminum foil and bake until the center of the pork belly tests tender when poked with a thin fork, 3 ½ to 4 hours, depending on the thickness of the pork.
Raise the oven temperature to 425 F.
Combine the maple syrup, vinegar, soy sauce, ginger, remaining 2 garlic cloves, ¼ tsp salt, and ½ tsp pepper in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Simmer until the mixture thickens and throws big bubbles, about 5 minutes.
Lift out the pork and pour out all but a thin layer of liquid in the baking dish. Thickly paint both sides of the belly with glaze. Roast the pork belly for 10 minutes, apply more glaze, and roast for another 5 minutes. Reapply glaze and roast until the glaze sticks to the belly and turns dark and caramelized, about 5 minutes.
Transfer the pork belly to a cutting board, cut the belly crosswise into ½ -inch thick slices, and serve.
Wild Rice and Brown Rice Pilaf
¾ c. natural wild rice
5 slices thick-cut bacon, finely diced
1 c. finely diced onion
3 T salted butter
3 cloves garlic, minced
½ c. brown rice
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 T sesame seeds, toasted
Put the wild rice in a fine-mesh sieve and rinse it under cold running water, swishing the rice with your hand until the water runs clear. Transfer the rice to a medium bowl and add water to cover. Pour off any black bits or floating kernels, and then pour the rice back into the sieve to drain.
Heat a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the bacon. Cook, stirring, until it’s crips around the edges, about 3 minutes. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon, and add the onion and butter to the pan. Cook, stirring, until the onion is tender and light golden, about 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for one minute. Add the brown rice, 2 ½ cups water, the thyme, salt, pepper, and the reserved bacon. Bring to a simmer, cover tightly, and reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Steam, tightly covered, for 10 minutes.
Stir in the wild rice, replace the lid tightly, and continue to steam until the brown rice is tender to the bite and the wild rice has curled into a lowercase “c” shape, 30-35 minutes. (Note that it took a good twenty minutes extra to get the wild rice soft enough to eat—maybe my stovetop’s lowest setting is lower than the author’s.) Add the sesame seeds, stir, and serve.