{"id":12836,"date":"2017-05-13T01:37:41","date_gmt":"2017-05-13T01:37:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=12836"},"modified":"2017-05-13T01:37:41","modified_gmt":"2017-05-13T01:37:41","slug":"pork-belly-porchetta-katoffelklose-asparagus-with-thyme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/food.hoggardwagner.org\/?p=12836","title":{"rendered":"pork belly porchetta; Kartoffelkl\u00f6\u00dfe; asparagus with thyme"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

I had expected to reserve a third of the little roast for another day, but, seduced by the appearance on the plate of one slice, I decided\u00a0it wouldn’t hurt us to have it all last night.<\/p>\n

I become slightly obsessed with the idea of preparing pork belly, but when I had finally purchased a piece uptown on Tuesday I still had little idea of how I would cook\u00a0it. I put it off for several days, deciding that each of the suggestions I found required more preparation and cooking time than I would be able to allow myself.<\/p>\n

On Thursday I was ready.<\/p>\n

I’d thought I would end up with a German meal, and had purchased a package of frozen German potato dumplings at the same time as the pork, but the formula I went<\/a> with (mostly) was totally Italian (I kept the Kartoffelkl\u00f6\u00dfe<\/em>, because I knew there might be the makings of a sauce, and they’re designed for a sauce; also, I really, really like Kartoffelkl\u00f6\u00dfe<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Altogether, the menu\u00a0was something of a hybrid.<\/p>\n

I had a lot of\u00a0fun preparing and assembling the rolled roast, and I enjoyed the 2-hour break in the middle of the process. It took only a few minutes to make the sauce, and the vegetables were almost an automatic process, once they had been trimmed.<\/p>\n

I had purchased those thick asparagus\u00a0spears on Monday and kept them in water inside a vase on the counter. They had been\u00a0a ‘given’ for\u00a0this meal from the very beginning (or even before) and so of course they stayed to the end.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Everything\u00a0looked wonderful on the plates, and it was all really really\u00a0delicious. There was also that\u00a0aroma going on for hours!<\/p>\n

The cost of the pork was surprisingly modest, especially considering its merits, something which gladdens the heart of almost any homecook.<\/p>\n

The actual process left me with\u00a0one question about the meat, but\u00a0it’s really only a technical one: There were almost no juices in the pan at the end (although I was able to coach\u00a0what there was into a terrific sauce), so where did all the fat disappear to?<\/p>\n