Interstellar's Michelin Pork Belly

And the recipe that saved me £1,000

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Welcome back to Like a Chef; lifting the lid on restaurant cooking for you at home.

This week, we’re revealing how to make Interstellar’s famous peach glazed pork belly, at home. No BBQ smoker required — don’t worry, we don’t have one either.

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Jack & Will

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For years, I (Jack) had wanted to visit Texas, mainly (entirely) for one reason: Texas BBQ. As a lifelong BBQ lover who has now made a career out of cooking, it felt necessary to try the real deal, and Texas is home to not one, not two, but four Michelin-starred Texas BBQ restaurants. Luckily for me, Chef John Bates — owner of Interstellar BBQ, one of these four restaurants — made his way over to London back in June, saving me a long trip across the Atlantic.

Interstellar were taking part in FUME Festival, the legendary international BBQ competition that FOWL was also participating in. With him, he brought his legendary peach tea pork belly bites. As it turned out, the hype was well and truly deserved: succulent, sweet, smoky and unforgettably decadent. This was a masterclass in pork cookery. It altered my BBQ brain chemistry and caused me to become fixated on recreating it at home. True, genuine Texas BBQ relies on an offset BBQ smoker for that signature smoky taste - but after many (many) tests and having now eaten close to my body weight in pork belly, those of us with just a humble oven can make something that is pretty damn well close to the OG. Good news for those of us that don’t want to drop a grand on a new bit of kit. Drop your weekend dinner plans right now, because this dish is seriously good.

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Ingredients:

• 2kg Boneless skinless pork belly (the fattier the cut, the better your result will be)

• 50g coarse ground pepper

• 24g fine sea salt

• 12g garlic powder

Peach tea glaze:

• 960ml Lipton ice tea

• 560g peach jam/conserve

• 30g dark brown sugar

• 50g apple cider vinegar

• 2 tsp fine sea salt

• 2 tsp smoke water

To finish

• 30ml Bourbon

• 30g Unsalted butter

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Method:

1. To brine the pork, mix together the ingredients for your dry brine and rub over the entire belly. Place your pork on a wire rack over a tray in the fridge and leave uncovered for 6-12hrs.

2. For the glaze, pour the Lipton peach iced tea into a pan and set over a medium heat. Simmer until reduced down to by 2/3’s.

3. Remove from the heat and whisk in the remaining ingredients except for the bourbon and butter.

4. Check the acidity and salt levels before setting aside.

5. To cook the pork, preheat oven to 90°c.

6. Place the pork belly in a high sided oven proof dish and fill with neutral oil until all the flesh of the pork belly is covered.

7. Place a cartouche over the surface and top with a lid of foil

8. Carefully place dish in preheated oven and cook for 6-8 hours until a cutlery knife passes through the centre of the belly with absolutely no resistance.

9. Strain oil and allow to come to room temperature before wrapping pork tightly in cling film. Chill overnight on a tray in the fridge in order for the fat to solidify, making it easier to slice.

10. Reheat the pork: Once chilled, square off the pork (use trim to make some banging

    ‘burnt end’ style beans) and cut into thick cubes (about 1.5 inches)

11. Submerge each cube into the glaze and set on an oven tray, pouring more glaze over each cube (make sure to reserve some to finish)

12. Put back into an oven set to 140C°c and reheat for approx 30minutes, basting in the glaze about half way through.

13. If the glaze starts to stick to the tray, add a splash of water to loosen enough to baste.

14. While the bites are in the oven, return the remaining glaze to the pan, add the bourbon and flambé.

15. Once the alcohol has burnt off, remove from the heat, add the butter and swirl until emulsified

16. Remove the tray of pork bites from the oven, rest for 15 minutes and top with the bourbon butter glaze ready to serve

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Thanks for reading!

Next week, we’ll be making an incredible beef short rib biryani, from the one and only Aktar Islam.

See you there,

Jack & Will

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