Recipe courtesy of Purgatory
Pork Belly Nigiri
- Level: Advanced
- Yield: 20 servings
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 20 servings
- Calories
- 1479
- Total Fat
- 123
- Saturated Fat
- 44
- Carbohydrates
- 43
- Dietary Fiber
- 2
- Sugar
- 17
- Protein
- 34
- Cholesterol
- 163
- Sodium
- 6556
- Total: 2 days 8 hr (includes pickling and chilling time)
- Active: 1 hr 10 min
Ingredients
Marinated Pork Belly:
One 10-pound slab pork belly, cut into 3- to 4-inch pieces
3 cloves garlic, smashed
Tare (Marinade):
8 cups soy sauce
4 cups mirin
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark soy sauce
Eel Sauce:
1 cup soy sauce
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup mirin
2 tablespoons roughly sliced fresh ginger
4 cloves garlic, smashed
1 yellow onion, roughly chopped
Nigiri:
2 cups cooked short-grain rice
1 piece sushi nori, cut into 1-inch strips
1/4 cup Pickled Mustard Seeds, recipe follows
1 green onion, sliced thin
1 bunch fresh chives, chopped thin
1 leek, julienned thin
Chile oil (rayu), for drizzling
Pickled Mustard Seeds:
2 cups rice vinegar
1 cup mustard seeds
Directions
Special equipment:
a kitchen torch- For the marinated pork belly: Put the pork belly, garlic and enough cold water to cover by 2 inches in a pot and bring it to a boil over high heat. Turn it down to simmer and cover three-quarters of the way so a little steam escapes. Cook for 90 minutes, then take off the stove. Strain the liquid from the pork belly and reserve the pork belly in the pot.
- For the tare: Put soy sauce, mirin, sugar, dark soy sauce and 4 cups water in a pot and bring it to a soft boil over high heat, stirring. Let cool to room temperature.
- Pour tare over the pork belly and make sure it completely covers or submerges the pork belly (weigh it down with a plate if necessary). Leave the pork belly in the tare, turning occasionally, for 1 hour at room temperature. Remove the pork belly from the tare to a sheet pan or a plate and refrigerate until firm, about 2 hours.
- For the eel sauce: Combine soy sauce, sugar, mirin, ginger, garlic, onion and 1/2 cup water in a pot over high heat, stirring. Right before it starts to boil, turn the heat down to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring every 30 minutes or so, until it reduces by about half, about 2 hours. Strain the liquid from the veggies and aromatics and cool for about 1 hour in the fridge.
- For the nigiri: Make an oval ball of rice about 2-by-1-inch. Slice the marinated pork belly 1/3-inch thick. Put a slice of pork belly on top of the rice and gently mold them together so they lightly stick. Wrap a strip of nori around the rice and the pork belly to secure them together. Put on a heat-resistant plate and gently pour about 2 teaspoons eel sauce on top of the pork belly. Use a kitchen torch to heat the pork belly until the eel sauce caramelizes. Top with Pickled Mustard Seeds, green onions, chives and leeks, and finish with a drizzle of chile oil. Repeat with remaining ingredients.
Pickled Mustard Seeds:
- Stir together the vinegar, mustard seeds and 1 cup water. Let the seeds absorb the liquid, refrigerated in an airtight container, 2 days.