Grand Entrance

Welcome!
By popular demand, I begin today with my first post of this blog. This will be a collection of all of my culinary explorations as a college student. Last week I had thought to begin this blog by showing how to make pizza. Alas though, being myself, I wanted to make a much more grand entrance. I thought for the whole week about how I could start with a bang. Today I will be showing you a meal fit for the finest appetite, one truly splendid enough to justify the creation of a blog around it.

Here it is.

Pardon the washed out colors, my phone isn't a great camera.



Braised and seared pork belly, seared scallops, a sweet and sour slaw, drizzled with a cracked pepper  maple syrup glaze. The salty pork graced with the sweet glaze was irresistibly tender and fit together wonderfully. A clean flavor of the sea made it's way through the buttery sear on the scallops and countered the pork wonderfully. The slaw provided another textural interest, slightly crisp. It also added a juxtaposed sweetness and wonderful tartness. Gluttony being a mortal sin, I'm most certainly going to hell for this.

But I'm over that. For dessert,

Spiced maple crème brûlée. I completely forgot to take a picture of it before digging in as I was entirely enthralled by the sensual splendor I was partaking in, yet managed to remember halfway through eating it to snap this photo. I should have cooked it a bit longer in the oven to provide optimal texture and setting, but the echoed maple flavor combined with the glorious creaminess that is crème brûlée still provided for this to be a divine dessert.

Enough drooling, let's get into the cooking of it.

What you need for 2 servings:

For the proteins:
Small pork belly (about 2 pounds)
24 oz. of beef broth
6 large sea scallops
Salt and pepper for seasoning
Butter for sautéing
Sunflower oil for sautéing
Chives for garnish

For the maple glaze:
1 tbsp coarsely cracked black pepper
1/3 cup maple syrup

For the slaw:
1 Envy apple, julienned
1 Gala apple,  julienned
2 Granny Smith apples,  julienned
1/2 cup shredded or julienned carrot
1/2 cup finely diced red onion
Lemon juice (to keep apples from browning)

For the slaw dressing:
2/3 cup mayonnaise
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tbsp. white sugar
1/4 tsp. crushed coriander
1/4 tsp. salt, or to taste

For the mayonnaise:
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup sunflower or other mild flavored oil
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. coriander
1/2 tsp. salt

For the crème brûlée:
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
4 very thin slices of ginger root
Pinch of ground cloves
1 tbsp. pure maple syrup
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp. white sugar
~1/4 c. sugar for brûléeing

Alright. Let's go.

Prepare the crème brûlée first as you will want to have your oven freed for the pork belly.
Preheat your oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit.
Pour the cream into a saucepan and bring it just to a boil, add the cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, turn the gas down very low and allow to infuse for about 15 minutes.
In the meantime, beat the egg yolks and sugar together until the yolks lighten in color.
Now that your cream is infused, add the maple syrup and strain it. Now, VERY slowly, very cautiously, begin adding it to the egg yolks while whisking vigorously. Then add a little more and a little more. This process is called tempering. If you're not careful, the heat from the cream will cook the egg yolks on contact, leaving you with curdles in your custard. Once you finish adding the cream, you'll have a fairly thin liquid.
To cook it, prepare a large pan by lining it with a tea towel and adding hot (not boiling) water that will come up a bit over half way on your ramekins. Then pour your custard into ramekins, place in the pan, and bake for 30-40 minutes. Your setup should look something like this:

 

Check the custards at 30 minutes. They should still be quite jiggly when they are done because of carryover heat. As I've learned from Alton Brown, if they're completely done in the pan, they'll be overdone on the plate.

After removing them, let them cool for 15 minutes, cover tightly in plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours. But, since you're making other things, it will be more like 4-5.

Next up, the pork belly. This is pretty easy. Adjust your oven to 250 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the belly in a large pan (preferably a dutch oven, but I don't have one) fat side up and add the broth. Cover this and place it in the oven for about 4 hours to braise. Painless, right?

While your pork is braising, start to put together the slaw. Combine all the vegetable and fruit elements in a large bowl and squeeze just a bit of lemon juice on to keep the apples nice and pretty. Here's what your bowl should look like:

Now for the dressing. This actually requires the most work if you decide to go the extra mile as I did and make your own mayonnaise, which is most definitely worth it.

To make this mayonnaise, first combine the vinegar and lemon juice. Then put the egg yolk, mustard and about half of the vinegar-lemon mixture in a small bowl. If you have a bowl that won't easily move while you whisk it, I'd highly recommend using that. Or a stand mixer would work really well. Or a food processor. Or pretty much anything except a small, thin metal bowl and a hand whisk like I used.

Anyways, whisk the yolk, mustard and acids, and ever so slowly start adding the oil. This is absolutely crucial. Just as in the tempering of the egg yolks, you must be very careful or you will end up with a failed emulsion. That is to say that instead of a thick spreadable substance, you'll have a thin oily mess. I started by adding 1/2 teaspoon of oil at a time while frantically whisking. Once you have about an ounce (24 half teaspoonfuls) integrated into the egg yolk, it should start to thicken up. Now you can start to (still, very slowly) pour the oil while whisking. Never stop whisking. Once half of your oil is integrated fully, the mixture should be getting too thick and getting stuck in your whisk. Add the rest of the acids and it will thin back out enough to continue whisking it. Continue slowly adding the oil until it is all integrated. Once you finish this, you can now add the garlic, coriander and salt.

It should look like this when you're finished:

Gordon Ramsey has a video that helped me a ton on this. Here's a link to it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSHXG-5ShFk

Now that you've made your mayonnaise, finish the dressing. Combine all ingredients and mix well to dissolve the sugar completely.

Do not combine the slaw and dressing yet.

Take your pork belly out of the oven and cool for about a half hour. Remove the belly from the braising liquid, pour the braising liquid into another pan and add the maple syrup and black pepper. Bring this to a boil and then simmer it, reducing by half.

Now that your meal is almost ready, add as much of the dressing to the slaw as you desire and toss to coat.

Once your sauce is nearly complete, heat up 2 sauté pans, one with a tablespoon of sunflower oil and a tablespoon of butter. Season your scallops with salt and black pepper (just a bit on them, enough to see that there is salt and pepper on them) and score the fat side of the pork belly. In the pan with the butter, begin searing your scallops. Cook them for about 1-2 minutes on the first side, check for browning, and flip them. Then cook for another minute or so. They should still be slightly translucent in the middle, but with golden sear on the flat sides. In the other pan, place the pork belly, fat side down, in to sear. Flip the belly after about 3-4 minutes. It should be golden and crispy on the fat side. Now all you want to do is finish warming it through.

Now that everything is cooked, slice the pork belly into manageable pieces (about 1/2 cm thick), and plate however you desire, or as such:

Now, delight in the fruit of your labor. And leave room for dessert.

Remove your custards from the fridge, they should be set nicely and not wobble much. Sprinkle about a half tablespoon of sugar as evenly as you can on each custard and fire up your torch. Torch the custards in a quick circular motion. Once the sugar melts enough that it starts to pool, pick up the dish while still torching it and rotate it so that the sugar forms an even disk. Don't worry, you won't burn yourself unless you're not careful. Once the sugar boils to a dark golden brown, remove the flame and cease your torch fire. Then wait one minute for the sugar crust to set. Then, break in and be delighted.

For a video that does a much better job explaining the brûléeing process (as well as an entire description of making crème brûlée) than I can give, watch this:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xxuhrRx0fY He starts brûléeing at about 2:20 if you want to skip the beginning.

And that's all. What a wonderful meal.

My most sincere thanks to Food City Columbus magazine, Alton Brown, Gordon Ramsey, Denver Adkins, Jonathan Guest and Food Network for all being amazing sources of information. I couldn't have made this happen without them. And a special thanks to my awesome cousin Michelle for helping come up with the name for my blog and for being a taste tester and joining me for this meal. I know it was a brutal task.

Thanks for reading!