Braised pork belly and glazed turnips

Finally normal supermarkets are carrying pork belly regularly, so I bought some when I saw it at Whole Foods and found a nice recipe in Molly Stevens' All About Braising. There's a lot of steps, but it's basically a simple recipe and I fixed it for us during the week.

You toast 1 tsp of coriander seeds (and 1/2 tsp of dill seeds if you have them, I didn't) and crack them in a grinder with 1 tsp black peppercorns then give it another pulse with 1-1/2 tsp coarse salt to make a rub for the pork belly. You apply the rub and wrap in plastic for a day or two.

When ready to cook, you brown the pork belly in olive oil, pour off some fat, then sautee chopped onion, celery, carrot for 10 minutes, add chopped garlic, 2 bay leaves, 4 cloves for 1 min., deglaze the pan with 1/2 c. white wine add 1 c. stock, bring to a simmer and put the pork belly back in. You put braising pan in a preheated 325-degree oven and cook for 2-1/4 to 3 hours, basting and checking every 45 min.

Then you let the pork belly cool in the braising liquid before removing. You score a cross-hatch pattern on the fatty side and cut into serving pieces (the recipe calls for about 2 lbs for 4 people and I had a little over 1 lb for 2). You strain the braising liquid and reserve 1/4 c. for the turnips (and if you can skim off any fat, use that for the turnips, too -- I couldn't).

To finish, you put the pork belly into a 425-degree oven to brown for 20 minutes. In the meantime, you take 1-1/2 lbs small turnips, peeled and cut into 1-inch wedges, and put into skillet with 1 Tbl butter (or pork fat), 1 tsp sugar, and the 1/4 c. reserved braising liquid and cook 10 to 12 min. until tender.

It all comes out pretty spectacular in a homey way and is delicious. Stevens' book has been consistently great and I'm looking forward to using her new cookbook, All About Roasting.