Pork Belly with Red Wine Reduction

I really wanted to make pork belly after having it for the first time. Thinking of ways to cut through the fattiness of it, I decided upon a red wine reduction. For my first attempt I can modestly say that I succeeded admirably. Thanks to yongfook's pork belly recipe for the idea of cooking vegetables beneath the meat to absorb the delicious flavor.

First dry and score the skin of the pork belly before rubbing it with salt, pepper and granulated garlic. In the meantime toss the chopped vegetables with a bit of red wine, salt and parsley and preheat the oven to 250F.

In a medium baking pan, put the vegetables under the meat. Brush the meat with olive oil and pop it in for ~3 hours. That's pretty much that. I was concerned that at that low temp the skin of the belly wouldn't crisp, but happily it did. If it had not, I would advise raising the temperature to 450F or putting it under the broiler for 10-20 to get that crackle we all love.

About 20 minutes before the meat is done, begin the sauce.

In a saucepan, cook shallots and garlic in olive oil and melted butter. Before they begin to brown too much add red wine (quite a bit) and beef broth (a splash will do). Put into the mix s+p, a bay leaf and a dash of sugar. Keep it at a steady boil until it reduced down. Strain out the bay leaf, garlic, shallots and serve with the meat and vegetables.