Stegt Flaesk!
It is pork belly with potatoes. What could go wrong?! The dish traditionally is eaten with a parsley cream sauce, and I found another recipe for a second sauce to make with it. For dessert, we made Risalamande, which is a rice pudding-like dish with a cherry topping. This is a meal that you have to plan a bit ahead for, especially if you are going to do the dessert. And there was an ingredient (the Heering liqueur) that I could not find anywhere, so I left it out of the dessert. Anyways, here's what I did:
STEGT FLAESK
Roast
4 lb pork belly
3 tbsp butter
Handful coarse salt
10-14 whole black peppers
6-8 bay leaves
2 lbs potatoes
Brown Sauce Base
1 C beef broth
1 onion (cut into 8 pieces)
1 teaspoon rosemary
1 teaspoon thyme
Brown Sauce
1/2 c whipping cream
1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly
Salt & pepper, to taste
Parsley Sauce
1/3 C butter
3 tbsp gluten free flour
2 C milk
2 handful's chopped parsley
Salt and pepper, to taste
- Score the fat on the pork belly. Be careful not to cut into the meat, which will cause the skin to be soft.
- Rub the fat with butter and salt.
- Put the bay leaves and peppercorns in the cuts spread them evenly on the roast.
- Curl up some tinfoil, and put it under the roast, so the roast won't tilt to one side.
- Put the roast on a rack over a pan.
- Put herbs, onions, and broth in the pan under the roast.
- Roast the pork at 400℉ for 1.5 - 2 hours. The temperature in the center has to be 167℉ before the roast is ready. Make sure that there is always liquid in the pan. You have to use it for the gravy/sauce.
- Just before the center temperature is 167℉, pour the dripping from the pan into a saucepan through a strainer, and boil the drippings for about 5 minutes.
- Add the cream, jam, and salt to the drippings.
- Thicken the sauce with corn starch.
- To make the parsley sauce, melt the butter in a pot.
- Once it is melted, add the flour and stir until the butter and flour is a coherent mass.
- Add a little bit of milk and stir.
- When the milk is mixed in and has reached the boiling point stir for a few seconds and then repeat.
- Add milk stir, boil, stir.
- Repeat until the sauce has a consistency that you like.
- Add the parsley and season to taste with salt and pepper.
- While the sauce is cooking, set the oven at 527℉, or start the broiler.
- Brown the roast in the broiler for about 5-8 minutes.
- Cut pork in thin slices and serve with cooked white potatoes.
- Enjoy!
(Source: Stegt Flaesk and Stegt Flaesk)
RISALAMANDE
2.5 C whole milk
3.5 tbsp sugar
1/2 C risotto rice
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C heavy cream
1/2 jar pitted morello cherries (in their syrup)
1/2 tbsp cornstarch , mixed with 1/2 tbsp water
1 whole almond
- Combine milk, 2.5 tbsp of sugar and rice in a saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Reduce heat to medium and simmer until the rice is tender and mixture is thick, stirring often, for about 30-40 minutes.
- Pour the rice pudding into a bowl and let cool completely.
- Using an electric mixer, beat the heavy cream and 1/2 tbsp of sugar in a medium bowl until stiff.
- Add vanilla and cream in rice pudding mixture.
- Cover and refrigerate for about 4 hours.
- Drain the cherries and collect the syrup in a saucepan. Add 1 tbsp of sugar (or more or less, depending on the syrup) into the pan.
- Add the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- Reduce heat.
- Add the reserved cherries and continue to simmer, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes.
- Pour the rice pudding into bowls. Top with warm cherry sauce and one almond.
- Enjoy!
(Source: Risalamande)
The verdict? It was good! Not super, but good. We really enjoyed the pork belly, but the potatoes and both sauces were just plain and not very flavorful. The parsley sauce tasted a lot like creamed spinach with a lot of flour, too thick and a slightly unpleasant consistency. The brown sauce had more flavor and was more like a regular gravy, but we didn't think it added much to the meal on the meat or on the potatoes. The dessert wasn't my favorite, but Handsome Husband liked it. I don't think that the rice was cooked all the way, so it tasted a little crunchy to me. He happily ate the leftovers, even though he doesn't usually do that with sugary foods...Overall, not a meal we will likely repeat, but we may use that seasoning on pork belly again!
ME
Taste of Stegt Flaesk (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 7
HANDSOME HUSBAND
Taste of Stegt Flaesk (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 6
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 6
ME
Taste of Risalamande (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 5
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 5
HANDSOME HUSBAND
Taste of Risalamande (1 is terrible, 10 is amazing): 7
Spicy (hot) (1 is not at all spicy, 10 is uneatable): 0
Flavor (1 is no flavor, 10 is packed with flavor): 6
Join us next time in Algeria!
