Pork Belly-The Transformation

Here is the pork belly pieces out of the brine, ready for the confit treatment

Nothing says love like a big glob of duck fat. I was going to use pork fat, but we don't have big buckets of D'Artagnan pork fat at work. Duck fat will have to do.

In with the pork I have shallots, thyme, & butternut squash. I'm not sure if the squash is going to hold up or turn to mush. I'll keep an eye on the texture and if I see it breaking down, I'll pull them out of the fat. If they do hold up, I'm going to use them in the final dish as a crispy on the outside/ mushy on the inside element. How I achieve that is yet to be determined. Any thoughts? I'm open to suggestions?

(update) Here are a couple items that I am going to use in the finished dish:

Pickled mustard seed

Compressed apples & pears

A sauce made with dried cherries or cranberries

Confit butternut squash

I'll keep you posted.

(read Pork Belly - The Beginning)