Recipe of the month – Dash restaurant’s KO Pork Belly

Lee Evans, executive chef at Victoria Street’s Dash restaurant, shares his recipe KO Pork Belly – a “proper hearty” winter dish.

INGREDIENTS

• Three slices of pork belly (180g)
• Spiced pear puree
• Fava bean dashi
• Pickled radish (washed & thickly sliced)
• Chinese cabbage leaves (washed)
• Red vein sorrel leaves
• Caster sugar
• Chinese five-spice

FOR THE FAVA BEAN DASHI

• 400g red miso
• 60g red chillies (sliced)
• 125g shallots (sliced)
• 200g carrots (sliced)
• 25g garlic (sliced)
• 40g lemongrass (crushed)
• 50g fresh ginger (sliced)
• 20/40g stem ginger & syrup
• 20g Konbu
• 12 tsps of fermented fava bean paste
• Lime juice
• 20g basil
• 4 litres of water

FOR THE PEAR PUREE

• 1kg pear puree
• 10g rosemary
• 20g cinnamon stick
• 50ml cider vinegar
• 20g agar-agar

METHOD

In a bowl, rub together 200g of caster sugar, 200g of table salt and a teaspoon of Chinese five-spice. Strip the skin from the pork belly (to leave only meat) and rub well with the salt and sugar mix before covering tight with cling film and chilling for 6-8 hours in a fridge.

FOR THE DASHI

1. Place all ingredients (except for the miso, basil and lime) into a pan and bring to the boil.
2. Once the liquid has come to the boil, simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Whisk in the miso and fava bean paste, simmer for a further six minutes.
4. Remove from the heat, drop in the basil and squeeze in the lime. Check if you need to add seasoning. Be careful as the miso paste
is quite salty.
5. Allow the dashi to cool completely before straining through a muslin cloth.
6. This will now be ready to serve.
7. Pre-heat your oven to 123 °C and wash off the brine from the pork belly. Place it in a deep baking tray and roast for three hours, basting every 30 mins with the pork’s natural fat and juices.
8. The pork will be golden by the end of the cooking process. Allow to stand for 20-30 mins (once cooked) so you can handle it to slice.

FOR THE PEAR PUREE

1. Put all the ingredients into a pan and bring to the boil, whisking constantly to incorporate well.
2. Remove the rosemary and cinnamon and chill the mix until set.
3. Blitz the mix in a food processor until smooth.
4. Warm to serve.

Whilst the pork is cooking, clean and slice your radish. Boil 100g of caster sugar and 50ml of cider vinegar until the sugar has dissolved. Allow this to cool before adding your sliced radish.

TO SERVE

1. Quickly blanch the Chinese leaves in the hot dashi and arrange at the bottom of the bowl.
2. Slice three strips of pork from the belly and place on top.
3. Pipe a nice dome of the puree in the centre of the bowl and scatter the pickled radish and sorrel leaves.
4. Finally, pour in enough dashi to sip as a broth. I’m a huge Ramen fan, so the more dashi the better.

Lee Evans, executive chef at Dash

GIVE LEE’S RECIPE A GO AND POST THE RESULTS ON INSTAGRAM! TAG US @YM_LIVERPOOL

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