Pork Served 4 Ways

Ah...the pork.  Who does not love pork?  There is no bad way to cook it or wrong way to eat it!  With this mind set, I spent a 5 day process to prepare this plate.  I used a couple different techniques and different cuts of pork.

The plate for the night included several pork related components:

• Pork Belly Confit
• Cured Pork Tenderloin
• Chicken Liver Pate Stuffed with Pork
• Apple Bacon Jam

Pork Belly Confit

First off, I have never confit anything before.  Most recently I had it served at a Korean pop up.  With that in mind, I was all for doing some pork belly confit!  From what I have read online, confitting is one of the oldest techniques to preserve food.  Whoever invented this process is my hero!  

For the pork belly confit, I had to brine the pork belly, but it had to be done properly.  I could not let it sit in the brine too long because then it would get to salty.  I suppose all the fat in the pork belly is just like a sponge.  I did this the night before and rinsed it the following morning before work and just let it dry out in a way in the fridge throughout the day.  The key to a confit is low and slow.  When I got home from work, I began the long 6 hour process.  I had to use lard because I did not have any pork fat lying around.  I melted the lard and let the pork belly submerged in it and tossed it in the oven.  

After 6 hours of it, I let it cool and placed something heavy on the pork belly to compress the fat for two reasons: to press out the fat and to make a better presentation.  

The day of plating, I had let the pork belly confit get to room temperature because the pork belly is stored with the lard to keep it "preserved".  To serve it, I scored the fat and rendered it in a hot pan until the fat crisped and finished it in the oven.  

Cured Pork Tenderloin

For the second component of the plate, I cured a pork tenderloin.  I have been on a curing kick ever since I learned how to make my own bacon.  If I could, I would have cured meat hanging all over my apartment.  I did a quick cure and only did it for four days and slowly roasted it in the oven on the fourth day.

Apple Bacon Jam

The third component of pork is an apple bacon jam that I prepared the prior night before plating.  This came abouts because I had a couple apples lying around that needed to be used.  Compared to the pork belly confit and cured pork tenderloin, this was a quick process of only a couple hours.  

Chicken Liver Pate stuffed with Pork

The last pork component of this is the chicken liver pate that I had added some ground pork to in the middle.  This was the first time I have prepared a pate and cooking chicken liver in general.  I have always loved pate, but I do not see it readily available around the markets near me.  This did not take long to prepare.  I had to let it set overnight.