Pork belly
Pork belly was often seen as cheap and simple. Nothing could be further from the truth, pork belly is a true delicacy these days! For our Barbecook pork belly sandwich we use belly bacon from Mangalica or Hungarian wool pigs. These impressive pigs have an extra thick skin, dark meat and a serious layer of bacon. These animals can weigh up to 200 kg. So it takes love, attention and time to cook this type of bacon nicely!
Preparation of a pork belly sandwich on the BBQ
For the preparation of the pork belly sandwich, we use the Barbecook Oskar smoker. First of all, we let the pork belly cook slowly in the smoker. To add some extra aromas, we choose to add Hickory smoking chips during the last two hours. Important: let them soak in water for a few hours beforehand. Then drain them, wrap them in aluminum foil, fold and prick a few holes in the package. You can also choose to use wood chunks. Three chunks are enough. You will probably need to add some extra chunks every now and then. These can be placed directly on the coals and don't need to be soaked in water.
Put the belly pork with the fat layer upwards on one of Barbecook's bamboo cutting boards. Make a diamond pattern in the fat layer by making notches in it with a sharp knife. Go about 0.5 to 1 cm deep, but be careful not to touch the meat. Put all the spices in a mortar and grind to a powder. Rub the pork belly completely with the spice mixture and place in a dish. Cover completely with foil and leave to rest in the fridge for 24 to 48 hours. It’s important to take out the meat of the fridge an hour before the preparation. In this way, the pork belly has time to get to room temperature.
Light the Oskar with the Barbecook charcoal starter. Put some Barbecook lighter cubes on your lower barbecue grid, fill the charcoal starter with charcoal and place it above the lighter cubes. Light the lighter and wait until a grey layer of ash appears on the charcoal. Then, safely drop the charcoal using the safe-drop system and add some extra coals. Wait again for a grey layer to appear on the coals. Then place the pork belly on the barbecue grid. Fill the bouillon dish with stock or water and close the lid of the Oskar smoker. Allow the belly pork to cook gently for 6 to 8 hours, checking the temperature regularly. It is important that it doesn’t go above 120 °C. Place the packet of smoking chips on the coals for the last 2 hours. Also let the pointed peppers smoke quietly with the pork belly for the last hours. Refill the bouillon dish regularly.
Crush the garlic and chop it finely. For the garlic sauce, mix the yoghurt, mayonnaise and crushed garlic and season with salt and pepper. Next, make the coriander-mint mayonnaise. Finely chop the herbs and mix them with the mayonnaise. Cut the gherkins into thin slices and marinate them in the mixture of rice vinegar, olive oil, pepper and salt. Toast some pine nuts in a frying pan without fat. If desired, warm the Turkish buns a little more.
Remove the pork belly and the pointed peppers from the Oskar smoker and cut them into pieces. Cut the Turkish rolls open and fill them with some pieces of belly bacon and pointed peppers, lettuce, gherkin, garlic sauce, coriander-mint mayonnaise and the toasted pine nuts. Result: a fantastic pork belly sandwich!