Kiss my Halibut Cheeks, Get in my Korean Pork Belly! LOL.
Grilled Pork Belly Kimchi Buta with Halibut Cheek and Leek Scrape Buchimgae
I managed to get my hands on a few fatty pieces of pork belly from Ballard Market a few weeks ago and finally found the time to cook it. YAY. I was so excited I jumped out of bed, washed my hands, threw on my gloves, pulled it from the freezer, threw it the sink to defrost, placed my hands on my hips and said to myself…
“…now what.” LOL.
I’ve had a lingering thoughts about this meat/fat layered protein ever since it exploded onto the Internet. There was that peanut-butter pork belly that was all over the webz, the many times I tried it at restaurants around San Francisco (DTRB did it with bitter greens) and the fact that it received so much damn interest because YES VIRGINIA, it is “raw” form of bacon.
I ended up scoring the fat 1/2” deep with a knife and marinated the 2 1lb. slabs in 1/2 cup soy, 1 tbsp. of sesame oil, 1/4 cup of white wine vinegar, a squeeze of honey, a few knobs of ginger, 2 garlic cloves and 1 stalk of “back of knife beaten” lemongrass in a zip top plastic bag overnight to get it sexy for the next day.
I started up my grill (switching to hardwood charcoal next -thanks cb!) and placed the meat on a canola oil greased grate directly over the fire for about 5 minutes each side. I then let it cook over indirect heat for another hour, until the fat separated into cute lil’ diamonds like you can see here:
Sexy. After allowing the meat to rest for 15 minutes, I carefully sliced the meat into uniform chunks – the fat is quite delicate so sharp knives will help in your presentation. I then combined it with kimchi (in honor of Kushibar’s kimchi buta) and a few quicly pickled leek scrape buds for color and sharp onion flavor that I picked up from the Ballard farmer’s market last Sunday.
Assuming you receive a bit of everything in each bite, you’ll instantly feel the heat and tartness from the kimchi, a spike of brightness from the leek, the satisfying bite from the pork and the luscious, rounded layer of fat melting in your mouth, begging to be equalized by a small cloud of piping-hot, freshly cooked white rice…
…ROFL.
*ahem*
WHOA. Got a little explicit with the description there! So to recap: marinade, grill direct heat then indirect, let rest and combine with kimchi and serve with white rice. There ya go!
The side dish was an adaptation of this recipe from MyKoreanKitchen of buchimgae (Korean pancake) using halibut cheeks, leek scrapes, shiitake mushrooms and carrot. I’ve got a bit of batter left, so there might be a video forthcoming! WHEEEE.
YAY. Pork belly! 
~Spec
