Name: Pork belly in chilli-chocolate piloncillo sauce
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 110 min
Total time: 150 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 2 onions, quartered; 1 carrot, quartered; 5 garlic cloves; 1.2 kg piece boneless pork belly, skin scored; Thinly sliced golden shallot (optional) and wilted spinach, to serve; Piloncillo sauce; 30 gm blanched almonds; 1 cinnamon quill; 50 gm dark chocolate (85% cocoa solids); 30 gm raw sugar; 40 gm piloncillo, shaved (see note); 2 pasilla chillies (see note); 1½ chipotle chillies (see note); 1½ dried ancho chillies (see note)

Pork belly in chilli-chocolate piloncillo sauce

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for pork belly in chilli-chocolate piloncillo sauce by El Publico restaurant in Perth.

Serves 6

Prep

40M

Cook

1H 50M

Total

2H 30M

“I borrowed this dish from chef Gerardo Vázquez Lugo of Nicos in Mexico City,” says Ward. “It was the first real inspiring taste I had of the depth and balance of Mexican food.”

Ingredients

2 onions, quartered

1 carrot, quartered

5 garlic cloves

1.2 kg piece boneless pork belly, skin scored

Thinly sliced golden shallot (optional) and wilted spinach, to serve

Piloncillo sauce

30 gm blanched almonds

1 cinnamon quill

50 gm dark chocolate (85% cocoa solids)

30 gm raw sugar

40 gm piloncillo, shaved (see note)

2 pasilla chillies (see note)

1½ chipotle chillies (see note)

1½ dried ancho chillies (see note)

Method

Main

1.Preheat oven to 180C. Place onion, carrot and garlic in a 21cm x 31cm x 5cm-deep roasting pan. Season pork all over with salt, rubbing generously into the skin, and place on top of vegetables. Pour water into pan to come just under halfway up sides of pork belly, cover dish with foil and braise until just cooked (1-1¼ hours). Remove foil, change oven setting to grill and grill until crackling forms (10-15 minutes; keep the pan on the middle shelf). Place pork on a tray, cover bottom and sides of pork (not crackling) with foil and set aside in a warm place to rest (15 minutes). Drain braising liquid (reserve 500ml) and set belly and liquid aside separately (discard vegetables).

2.For piloncillo sauce, dry-toast almonds and cinnamon in a frying pan over medium heat, stirring frequently, until toasted (5-6 minutes). Cool, then blend in a blender until finely chopped. Add chocolate, raw sugar and piloncillo, blend until a chunky, crumbly chocolate mass forms, then set aside. Combine reserved braising liquid and chillies in a saucepan, bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Add chocolate mixture and stir occasionally until chocolate melts, then simmer until thickened (5 minutes). Strain sauce through a sieve, pressing firmly on chillies to extract maximum flavour and heat (discard solids), then keep warm. The sauce should be spicy, sweet and chocolatey.

3.Cut the pork into thick slices and serve with piloncillo sauce, shallot and wilted spinach.

Note Piloncillo, an unrefined cane sugar used in Mexican sweets, is available from Fireworks Foods; if it’s unavailable, substitute jaggery or a medium-coloured palm sugar. Pasilla, chipotle, guajillo and ancho chillies are available from Monterey Mexican Foods.
Drink Suggestion: 2010 Mairena Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina. Drink suggestion by Paul Aron
Notes