Pork Belly Lettuce Wraps

For Curing

• 2 pounds boneless, skinless pork belly
• 1 tablespoon (about ½ ounce) kosher salt
• 2 teaspoons (or ¼ ounce) of granulated sugar
• ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

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For the Glaze

• 2 cups sweet chili sauce (we recommend Mae Ploy)
• ½ cup hoisin
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger (peeled and grated)
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemongrass (grated or finely chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (peeled and smashed into a paste)
• 2 pinches salt
• 2 limes (zested and juiced)

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Lettuce and Toppings

• 18 large, sturdy leaves of bibb lettuce
• 2 tablespoons chopped peanuts
• 18 plucked cilantro sprigs
• 1 pound or about 30 pork belly lardons
• ½ cup pickled vegetables of your choice (we love using lemon dill cucumber pickles)

Curing the Pork Belly

1. Use a ratio: 2 parts kosher salt to 1 part granulated sugar (by weight); 1 ounce of cure per every 2 pounds of meat.
2. Mix your salt and sugar together and liberally season the pork belly on every surface with the mixture.
3. Crack black pepper on the belly and store it in a container in the cooler for about 24 hours.

Oven Roasting the Pork Belly

1. When roasting the belly, preheat your oven to 275 F.
2. Take the belly out of the container you were curing it in in the fridge and pat the belly dry with paper towels and place it, fat side down in a pan that is deep enough to maintain the fat that will render from the belly while cooking (about 1-2 inches).
3. Put the pan with the belly in the oven and cook for 50 minutes. After the 50 minutes, remove the pan from the oven, gently flip the belly so that it is now fat side up (be careful not to splash yourself with hot pork fat) and continue cooking for 1 hour, or until the internal temperature of the pork belly is 165 F and the fat starts to become slightly crispy. When fully cooked, gently remove the belly from the pan, strain off the roasted pork fat (great for sauteing vegetables and confit cooking), and allow to cook before portioning.

Portioning the Pork Belly

1. Once you allow the pork belly to fully chill (about 6 hours), slice the belly into strips that are about the width of your pointer finger thick.
2. Then lay them flat and cut them again, about the thickness of your pointer finger so you are left with “lardons” or elongated, rectangular dice  that are about equal thickness and about the size of your finger from the middle joint down.

Making the Glaze

1. Add the sweet chili sauce, hoisin, soy sauce into a bowl and whisk until everything is one even color and everything is blended.
2. For the ginger: peel the ginger and grate it finely on a microplane into the chili sauce. If you do not have a microplane, peel, then finely chop the ginger.
3. For the lemongrass: Cut off the very bottom root end of the stalk of lemongrass so that the root is gone and the white base is showing (less than ¼ inch). Begin zesting the lemongrass on a microplane, root end down, removing fibrous exterior strands of the outer shell as you go, onto a cutting board. When you have enough lemongrass zested, pick out any strands that may have fallen in and chop them finely. Add the lemongrass to the chili sauce.
4. For the garlic: After peeling the garlic, gently smash the cloves with the side of your knife and roughly chop the garlic so that it resembles the size of the ginger. Sprinkle one pinch of salt onto the garlic and smear the garlic with the side of your knife across your cutting board so that it starts to form a paste. Add the second pinch of salt and continue smearing the salt into the garlic until it forms a relatively smooth paste and no large chunks are remaining.
5. Add the garlic, ginger, lemongrass and lime juice and zest to the chili sauce and whisk to evenly incorporate.

Pan Roasting the Pork Belly

1. Heat your saute pan on medium heat and add about one teaspoon of the roasted pork fat into the pan.
2. Add the pork belly lardons to the pan and cook, moving occasionally to ensure even cooking, for about 4-6 minutes or until all sides of each lardon are golden brown.
3. Once the lardons are golden brown, turn off the heat, strain off the pork fat that is rendered out into the pan, and add the pork belly glaze into the pan.
4. Toss, or stir, the belly so that they are fully coated in the glaze.

Assembling the Pork Belly Wraps

1. Assemble your wraps or serve them family style with the toppings and enjoy!