pork belly with apples and mashed potatoes

Braised pork belly, buttered mashed potatoes, candied onions, roasted apple with old-fashioned mustard sauce

For 4 people

bacon

1 kg of Gascon bacon • 1 lime • 25 g of ginger • 2 cloves of garlic • ½ onion • ½ sprig of lemongrass • 1 liter of water • 10 cl of soy sauce • 50 g of butter (for the sauce ) • 15 g old-fashioned mustard

Preheat the oven to 130°C. Take out the dish that you will need later.

Peel and cut the onion into mirepoix (large pieces intended for long cooking).

Cut the lime in half, peel the ginger and cut it into 2cm thick slices. Peel the garlic and crush the cloves using the flat of a knife blade. Mash the lemongrass to reveal the fibers and aid infusion. Pour in soy sauce.

Arrange all the ingredients in a cast iron saucepan and add the cold water. The pork belly should be completely submerged, skin side up. If not, add water up to the height (this only affects the sauce reduction time). The chest floats, part of the skin will always remain on the surface, no matter what.

Close the saucepan with its lid and bake for 3 hours.

Once cooked, remove the breast, skin side down, onto the baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You will have the meat facing you and you can, when the temperature of the meat allows it, easily remove the small cartilage and small bones that are under the first layer of meat. Leave the meat to rest at room temperature under transparent film to prevent it from drying out.

Filter the cooking broth with a sieve and put it to reduce in a saucepan until you like the sauce. When this is the case, add the butter in small pieces a little at a time, while whipping the sauce to emulsify. Finally add the mustard and mix well.

When serving, detail your brisket portions and color them in a non-stick pan with its lid.

Be careful, during this cooking phase the breast tends to form large bubbles which cause the fat to splash out and could burn you. Be sure to keep the lid over the pan and be careful when turning the pieces of meat. Color 3 sides, always starting with the skin side. Serve.

Mashed potatoes with butter

6 beautiful Agatha potatoes • 15 g of coarse salt • 150 ml of milk • 150 ml of cream • 100 g of butter

Wash the potatoes. Peel them and cut them in half lengthwise.

In a large pot, cook the potatoes, starting in cold salted water, until fully cooked and starting to fall apart.

At the same time, in a saucepan, heat the milk, the cream and the butter, without letting it boil.

Drain the potatoes and pass them through a potato masher or potato masher, gradually add the very hot milk/cream/butter mixture, mixing with a spatula until you obtain the desired consistency. Adjust seasoning and store at room temperature.

spring onions

4 onions • Fine salt • 40 g of butter • 2.5 ml of olive oil

Peel the onions and chop them finely. In a saucepan, heat a drizzle of olive oil and add half the butter. Add all the chopped onions and a good pinch of salt. Stir to distribute the heat in the bottom of the pan and add the second half of the butter on top so that it gradually melts. Close the pan with its lid and simmer over low heat until tender and starting to caramelize slightly. Adjust seasoning and set aside at room temperature.

Roasted apple

1 fuji apple • ½ cayenne pepper • ¼ lemon • 7.5 g butter

Peel the apple and preserve it in water and lemon. Cut it into quarters and remove the core.

In a hot skillet, place the butter, red pepper, and then the apple quarters. Color them on the pulp until they turn golden.

Pickled onions

25 g of shallots • 125 g of sherry vinegar • 75 g of sugar • 125 g of orange juice • Bay leaf • 6 spring onions

Peel and chop the shallots. In a saucepan, let them dry and blend them with the vinegar and then the orange juice. Add sugar, bay leaf and leave to infuse for about fifteen minutes.

At the same time, peel and cut the onions in half lengthwise. Arrange them in a mason jar like a jam jar.

Once the pickles are infused, pass them through a sieve over the onions and leave to cool at room temperature for 1 hour, then in the fridge for 2 hours.

By Benoît Jaffré, “The Vegetable Garden”, CFA of Gastronomy, Marcy-l’Étoile