Peanut Butter Dulce and Pork Belly? You Had Me At Hello!

As you may recall, I  asked you to send me your favorite dishes you've recent cooked at home.   As a prize for the winning selection, I'm giving away a free seat to my upcoming Foodie NYC tasting on 3/30.   

I received many interesting and delicious dishes, so this choice was very difficult to make.   Thanks to all of you that sent in your entries!   

But, in a sense, the winner came down to the fact that I may have drooled on my keyboard when I saw Chicken Fried Gourmet's Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche paired with Pork Belly.    Not only did the pairing completely intrigue me,  but the utter deliciousness of Michael's dish speaks for itself.

From the words of Michael himself, via his blog Chicken Fried Gourmet:

I wanted to do something different with the Peanut Butter Dulce De Leche (surprise) and not follow the usual theme of making a dessert.....My first thought was pork belly. The inspiration came from Sam Mason's Tailor, where he does a miso-butterscotch pork belly. As you can tell from previous posts this is one of my favorite meats to prepare recently. I wanted to do just simple flavors with the PBDDL so there is really not a lot of things going on with this dish other than the usual accompaniments.

I started by marinating the pork belly in a mixture of PBDDL, bourbon, fresh garlic and olive oil. I then vacuum sealed it and put it in the fridge for 3 days. From the start the dish was made to be of smaller proportion. Originally we were going to have this on Saturday night with friends where we all made two small dishes. It would sort of be like Tapas but not Spanish themed. Everything was on track till Louisiana’s crazy weather sidelined two of the couples with flu like symptoms. Since I had already spent so much time on the dish I decided to just go ahead and make it the main course.

I wanted to have as few ingredients as possible in order for the PBDDL flavor to come through. I settled on some micro arugula dressed in balsamic dressing with crushed peanuts to top it off. I added a “paint” of the PBDDL under the belly and added 3 drops of balsamic syrup to cut the sweetness of the PBDDL. All day Friday I kept obsessing on if I should add a “base” to the dish..... The 2^nd idea, and the one I went with, was a sweet potato ice cream. It follows a basic ice cream recipe but I add two roasted sweet potatoes then strain before making the custard. Looking back I would have added more sweet potatoes for a more pronounced flavor. It was still good though.

This dish was a hit.   It was filling but not to the point where you felt like you had to save up to go see your cardiologist.   The ice cream played well with the sweetnees of the PBDDL and the savoriness of the pork belly.

To thank Michael for this delicious bit of inspiration, he'll be receiving a complimentary seat to the Foodie NYC 3/30 tasting event. 

Be sure to check out Chicken Fried Gourmet for more pictures of the winning dish here.

Thanks to all those who participated and congrats, Michael.

Comments

[Chicken Fried Gourmet]

Thanks Joe, I am glad you liked the recipe. After losing the "challenge" last year with my crawfish and grits hushpuppy I was glad to submit a winning entry. The dish was inspired by the awesome Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche made by Blake of www.blakemakes.com

[Blake]

That's my friend! That's my dulce! Michael is a truly gifted (not just talented cook). I can't wait to have dinner at his house, and someday, in his restaurant! Way to go Mikey!

[Becca Porter]

Wonderful Michael. Congrats!

[joe]

a total team effort!

[Denise]

Wow. That looks amazing!

[Geggie]

PBDDL = love

[Natalie]

Wonderful recipe Michael! The PBDDL was fantastic, wasn't it?

[laurie]

It looks amazing. Drool on your keyboard is so dead on. Fabulous looking dish!

[Kelvin]

That looks good, although one critique I might have is the cold ice cream might cancel out with the warm pork, assuming that it's warm. If you uses Methyl cellulose, and poach a scoop of the sweet potato ice cream in warm water, it'll look like ice cream but will be warm. Still, I'd love to have a taste.

[Chicken Fried Gourmet]

Kelvin, I had thought of that. A fellow reader on Blake Makes.com suggested the same thing. I will have to try that for an upcoming big announcement :)

Thanks for all the kind words everybody and thank you Joe for picking my dish.

[Jessie Cacciola]

You had me at "I loathe Sandra Lee..." Great blog!
- Jessie -