Kitchen Tour + Arugula & Radish Salad w/Warm Braised Pork Belly
radish varieties: french breakfast and icicle
We don’t know what we did right in a previous life, but we sure have been reaping the benefits of it all lately, especially when it comes to blogging. Our blogging has kindled friendships with folks far, wide and nearby that we never would have found otherwise. From bloggers that we have already met to those of you frequent visitors that we have yet to meet, are the reasons why we love blogging.
Jen Yu of Use Real Butter Blog is one of those individuals (and an awesome skier at that!) that brings sunshine to our lives every time we see her rip it up on the snow, chat over emails or in the flesh, or any time we visit her amazing and delicious blog. So when Jen asked us to share our kitchen as part of her Blogger Kitchen Tour Series, there was only one probable answer——YES YES YES YES!
As part of our kitchen tour, we talked a lot about the influences of our two kitchens: our indoor one and our outdoor garden kitchen (aka our Victory Garden.) Both of these play an equal part in our everyday culinary lives. We spend as much time outside growing, prepping, cooking and entertaining in our garden kitchen as we do in our inside kitchen.
So, to keep it short and sweet, please head on over to Jen’s blog to get a tour of our kitchen!
As part of the photographs for this kitchen tour, we gathered the garden vegetables and highlighted what is currently exploding in the garden now. This week there were some amazing arugula and various kinds of radishes ready to be devoured. In particular, the arugula must have been on crack or something because it is growing at a faster rate than we can eat it. Before we knew it, it was flowering like a madman, shooting up spikes of beautiful flowers in every single direction. Even with the flowers, the leaves were surprisingly not bitter at all, but rather, just as delicately peppery as when they were as tiny seedlings. The crazy radishes have grown like weeds and within 5 weeks, we have full fledged radishes that are ready for harvest.
A quick note about the salad. The braised pork is similar to a Chinese Red Pork. The pork is good on it’s own or with rice or noodles, but it really comes alive with the arugula and radishes. The contrast of the warm pork and braising sauce against the fresh, slight pepperiness of the arugula and radishes is utterly delectable. If the arugula has a mean bite, mix in some lettuce to give the salad a bit more balance. The warm braising sauce and the pork belly will wilt the arugula salad slightly, so top the salad only right when you are ready to serve. This dish has quickly become one of our favorite Victory Garden recipes.
(above): arugula explosion of tender leaves & flowers
(below): tender, french breakfast variety of radishes
We’ll see you over at Jen’s blog to get a tour of our kitchen. Teaser- we have pictures of the pups over there too!
Arugula & Radish Salad with Braised Pork Belly
Ingredients
- 2 lbs. Pork Belly (skin removed)(pork shoulder/butt works too)
- water to cover
- 2 -inch ginger , thinly sliced
- 8 cloves garlic (smacked with flat of knife)
- 4 cups water
- 1/2 cup dry vermouth
- 1/2 cup sake
- 1/2 cup Maggi Seasoning (or soy sauce - reduce amount slightly if using regular soy sauce)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- baby arugula leaves
- 2-3 radishes (sliced into coins or halved)
Instructions
- Cut the pork belly into 3/4" cubes. Put pork belly in saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Boil for 10 minutes.
- Strain and rinse pork belly. Rinse pan, put pork back in pan with ginger, garlic, water, sake, dry vermouth, and maggi or soy sauce seasoning.
- Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to low, then simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add brown sugar, and simmer for another 30 minutes (stirring occasionally.)
- Test cooked pork belly to is see if it the pork is tender. Simmer longer if needed.
- Serve on a bed of baby arugula with sliced radishes. Dress with juices from braise.
Your radishes are beautiful as is your kitchen! How fun to see where people cook! I believe the kitchen is the belly of the house (both literally! and figuratively!).
Todd, Diane…
Thanks so much for sharing your fab kitchen with us via Jen’s blog.
A favor to ask, would you either post or email me a pic of your upper cabinet/countertop that houses your always-plugged-in blender and Cuisinart?
I’m in the process of planning my dream kitchen and always thought that I would like to have electrical outlets in my upper cabinets but wondered how I would deal with cord management, etc.
Love your blog. Gorgeous pics!
Thanks in advance!
Your garden is just awesome, and those blood oranges in the picture on Jen’s site are the most perfectly beautiful ones I have ever seen. They made me think of hopping into a plane, flying over and begging for a bag full of those beauties! 🙂
Greetings,
Tiina
hi beautiful people!!! hope you are well and enjoying spring.
Karen – Thanks. Good luck in your remodel. I can be a cranky, stressful endeavor, but totally worth it in the end. To answer your question, it isn’t too bad to keep clean. It mostly gets grimy on the top side, but the glass windexes clean easily with newspaper. We usually clean it about once a month, unless we are entertaining a lot, then we clean it about every two weeks to keep it looking pretty. The stainless steel gets cleaned maybe every other month with satin shine.
Cynthia – Yeah.
Thanks for visiting everyone. We have been a bit behind but there will be a new post going up soon. We’ve been working on a video and it’s taking forever! In the mean time, GO VISIT JEN YU at UseRealButter.com!!!! She’s the sweetest and the best! We love Yu! Todd.
Braised pork belly – pleasurable sigh 🙂
I LOVED seeing your kitchen on Jen’s blog. Very inspiring as I am just embarking on a kitchen remodel. One question, is it hard to keep that gorgeous glass hood clean? I’d worry it would get greased up. What do you do to keep it clean? Thanks.
Gastronomer – Thanks. We nearly almost f’d up the coding trying to implement the rotating header, it looks like we got lucky again.
Carol – Thank you! You’re such a sweetie. Love ya!
Rachael – 1. I made this 3 times while Diane was in the Bahamas. It’s that gooood! 2. Thanks. We feel very lucky to have it, but being in Japan must be pretty cool too. It has it’s own great rewards!
we are never full – 20lbs of pork belly! That is AWESOME!!!! Are the Italian arugula plants you have much different than those you buy at the markets. Our seeds (I don’t remember any specifications) tend to give leaves that are much less harsh, yet nicely full flavored. I wonder if yours are even better yet!
Food Woolf – We just keep trying to learn from both our successes and our failures. You’re too kind. Love ya, Brookie
Amy – Welcome to blogger world! Thanks. The fish were from the market in DaNang, Vietnam. I have a whole new appreciation for fish after going to Vietnam.
Thanks for visiting everyone. I’m not sure if I mentioned this already 😉 but make sure you visiting the lovely, the talented, the funny, and the mad skilled woman Jen Yu at UseRealButter.com. Can you tell we love her? Todd.
LOVE the new pix on yr header. gorgous pix everywhere. where are the fish from? a
You are such amazing people, with such incredible talents. How do you do it all? Your garden is AMAZING and makes someone like me without a back yard to play with jealous…but somehow I think if I had all the space you have I could never even come close to what you two can do with your beautiful, talented hands.
loves,
b