recently i was lucky enough to be one of a handful of chefs who got to cook a dinner focusing on the mangalista, or wooly pig (i say it should be called the fatty pig, but we will get to that in a minute).  a few chefs from the city (chris pandel from the bristol, mike sheerin from blackbird, pat sheerin from the signature room, paul virant from vie—and one more that i am not sure about —who are known to work with local farms were given the opportunity to buy a wooly pig from a local farmer who raised the only five pigs of this breed in the midwest.

the mangalista pig is prized for its excessive amount of fat.  not that any pig is known for being trim, but this wooly pig is beyond fatty.  i was invited to do the dinner, along with tentori from boka and poli from perennial, by chef paul virant.  the chefs got together one morning to go visit our pig and then have a quick meeting about who would use what cut for the two dinners.  as usual i was out of town so i was sure i would be stuck with the feet and tail (not that ANY part of a pig is a bad cut to get).  surprisingly, i was given the belly.  my favorite part.  i was so excited and had a dish all planned out.  until the belly arrived…

i was at home in my kitchen, prepping for a charity dinner, and in walks my sous chef dave with hector (the name of our grocery cart that we use to move our overabundance of food up and down from my condo).  on top of hector, since it would not fit inside the cart, was a huge garbage bag that looked like it held a dead body.  “what the hell is that?!” i said (sure there was a swear word in there some place too).  it was the belly.  looked more like a belly that had eaten three other pigs.

most bellies are about 25 pounds total.  each half of the belly is used to make a slab of bacon, which i am sure you have seen.  now imagine that slice of bacon on your sunday brunch plate…but imagine it is about 8 inches thick and 6 of those inches are fat.  that is what a slice of this belly would be.  i then exclaimed, “what the f@*k am i going to do with that!!”

we cleaned the belly, removed the skin, and trimmed off a few inches of fat.  i decided to render it down and use the fat to confit some shallots to use in the dish.  we then took the belly and cured it for a couple of days in a large cooler outside (luckily it was below 10 degrees outside at the time) with some salt, brown sugar and spices.  we then smoked half of the bacon as we normally would to make bacon, then braised the other half for about ten hours until the meat was beyond tender.  luckily i had just braised some smoked goat so i had some great braising liquid around to impart a ton of flavor.  you always want to save your braising liquid so you can use it to braise with the next time around.  just remember that the liquid will get saltier and saltier over time so you may need to season the meat a bit less.  also, if you are storing in the refrigerator for a few days, bring the liquid to a boil every three days to kill off any bacteria.

in the end we wound up with a dish layered with a ton of flavor.  we sautéed some fennel and cucumber to accompany the pork fat confit shallots and braised belly as the base.  next came a few slices of hiramasa (also known as kingfish, similar to hamachi) followed by a couple slices of the bacon that we heated in the broth.  we infused the broth with a bit of apple then garnished the dish with fresh apple and radish.

i honestly could not even write out a recipe for this if i tried.  way too much going on.  but it was tasty and was a nice celebration of the pig.

both dinners, vie the first night and boka the second, went great.  it is always fun to get together with other chefs from chicago to cook together and chat about what fun farmers we have found or what new products we are just loving.  that is how we learn from each other and support each other.  i really think it’s this relationship amongst the chefs of chicago that makes the city the food destination that it is.

thank you to paul virant for inviting the boka crew to be a part of such fun events.  and thank you mr. wooly pig for being so tasty.

(photos courtesy of linda bergonia)