Wine + Swine + Fryer = Delicious!

A series of fortunate events:

1. I had a bottle of Brunello waiting to be drunk.
2. My friend Brian is in the middle of a pork curing extravaganza making homemade pancetta and homemade bacon. He had a little of that luscious pork belly left over.
3. It also happens that Brian helps make gluten free hamburger buns at the bakery on Saturday mornings and brought the belly to me.
4. We both had that evening free.

It is rare when we all have the evening off to enjoy each other's company so it was set - we were gonna cook dinner at my place, eat, drink and make merry. I  took the lovely little belly, rubbed it up with a little salt, pepper and olive oil, wrapped it in some foil and threw it in a 250 degree oven for 5 hours.

We began to brainstorm the rest of the meal while we worked. I actually love that part and get very excited and very ambitious. Unfortunately, what sounds like a good idea at 10:00 am when I have loads of energy feels completely different at 7:00 pm after a long day at work. I have gotten better and I had Brian there to reign me in. After much deliberation, we organized the pieces of the food puzzle into a picture for the evening. The gluten free meal would consist of:

1. Fried Brussel Sprout Leaves
2. White Bean and Artichoke Heart Ragout
3. Sauteed Broccoli Raab with Preserved Lemon
4. Oven Roasted Pork Belly

We had no plans to fry, the pork at least. The fryer was for the brussel sprouts.I love to separate the sprouts into the individual leaves, toss them with a little Cheatin' Wheat Gluten Free Flour and salt, and toss them into a 360 degree fryer. The crispy little morsels are so addictive! They were the snack while we drank champagne, also one of my favorite things in life, and prepared the rest of the meal.

The whole frying of the already meltingly fatty pork belly was a fortuitous decision. After being roasted for 5 hours, the belly, including the fat cap, was like butter. But I wanted to crisp up that fatty layer for dinner. I had a my cast iron pan getting hot on the stove when Brian and I both looked to the belly, the fryer and each other. "It would be fast," I say. "We could heat all the pieces up at one time," he says. I can tell this is a great idea because we are both grinning ear to ear. As you can imagine...Wine + Swine + Fryer = Delicious!