For some people comfort food is mac and cheese, for me it is pork belly and dried pickled mustard.  Eating this reminds me of when I still lived at home, when I didn’t have to worry about what to make for dinner and my afternoons were filled with naps. The joys of being a kid.

I haven’t made this dish very often since I couldn’t find the dried pickled mustard for the longest time.  Actually, I didn’t know what it was called in english and just assumed that we don’t have it here. One day, when I was not grocery shopping in a hurry, I scoured the aisles of the asian store and found it!

The dried pickled mustard tastes very strong, it is salty and sour. Therefore, I don’t add many other seasonings, I only add sugar to balance out the pickled mustard.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb of pork belly
• 2 – 3 cups of dried pickled mustard
• 1/4 cup of garlic
• 2 tbsp sesame oil
• 1 tbsp coconut sugar (or brown sugar or honey)
• 4-5 cup of water

Directions:

• Heat up your cast iron skillet and your dutch oven.

• Preheat your oven to 375F.
• Soak the dried pickled mustard, rinse and drain.

• While waiting for the skillet and dutch oven to heat up, crush the garlic (you can also chop it or press it, anything to make it small)

• When the skillet is hot enough brown the pork belly on all sides.

• While the pork belly is browning, sauté the garlic in the sesame oil.

• Put the drained pickled mustard in the dutch oven with the sesame oil and garlic, add the sugar. Stir everything well.

• Don’t forget to flip the pork belly.

• When pork belly is all nice and brown, put it on top of the sautéed pickled mustard. Add 4-5 cups of water (or broth). Close the lid and put it in the oven for about 45 minutes or until the pork belly is tender.

 

Tip:

• If you are short on prep time, you can definitely skip the browning part.  However, I find that browning makes the dish more flavorful.