Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche from Blake Makes and Pork Belly

A little while back I came across a blog on the Seriouseats.com website named Blake Makes. What caught my eye was that he was from New Orleans. Since then we have traded emails and I would have to say we have formed an “internet friendship”. Blake’s blog is fairly new but the content on there already is amazing. He has some great things coming up for his site as well that I am excited about.

About two weeks ago I get a message to check out his site. I do, and find that he is giving away a batch of peanut butter dulce de leche that he had made. It arrived on my doorstep about 4 days later. The idea behind this promotion, SOOPZ, is to get a product out there and have people cook with it, then blog about it. Pretty good idea, but I would not expect any less from a guy who runs his own marketing firm.

I wanted to do something different with the PBDDL (surprise) and not follow the usual theme of making a dessert with it ( no offense to all the others – those brownies look great). My first thought was pork belly. The inspiration came from Sam Mason's Tailor, where he does a miso-butterscotch pork belly. As you can tell from previous posts this is one of my favorite meats to prepare recently. I wanted to do just simple flavors with the PBDDL so there is really not a lot of things going on with this dish other than the usual accompianents.

I started by marinating the pork belly in a mixture of PBDDL, bourbon, fresh garlic and olive oil. I then vacuum sealed it and put it in the fridge for 3 days. From the start the dish was made to be of smaller proportion. Originally we were going to have this on Saturday night with friends where we all made two small dishes. It would sort of be like Tapas but not Spanish themed. Everything was on track till Louisiana’s crazy weather sidelined two of the couples with flu like symptoms. Since I had already spent so much time on the dish I decided to just go ahead and make it the main course.

                   

I wanted to have as few ingredients as possible in order for the PBDDL flavor to come through. I settled on some micro arugula dressed in balsamic dressing with crushed peanuts to top it off. I added a “paint” of the PBDDL under the belly and added 3 drops of balsamic syrup to cut the sweetness of the PBDDL. All day Friday I kept obsessing on if I should add a “base” to the dish. My old standby of grits would take away from the idea of the dish and besides I wanted something new, something that would stand out. I came up with two ideas and actually made them both. Right before I plated the dish was when I made my decision. The two ideas both involved sweet potatoes as I assumed they would balance well with the pork and the PBDDL. The 1^st idea was a sweet potatoe and ancho foam that would sit under the belly but on top of the paint.The foam would have more of a consistency of a very light whip cream rather than a froth. The 2^nd idea, and the one I went with, was a sweet potatoe ice cream. It follows a basic ice cream recipe but I add two roasted sweet potaoes then strain before making the custard. Looking back I would have added more sweet potatoes for a more pronounced flavor. It was still good though.

This dish was a hit. It was filling but not to the point where you felt like you had to save up to go see your cardiologist. The ice cream played well with the sweetness of the PBDDL and the savoriness of the pork belly. Other than adding more sweet potatoes to the ice cream, I would not change anything about this dish. Much thanks go out to Blake of BlakeMakes.com, I look forward to what he has to offer in the future and hope to contribute myself. If you can get your hands on some of his Peanut Butter Dulce de Leche I highly recommend it. The possibilities are endless.

Comments

[Shawnda]

Wow! What an amazingly unique way to incorporate the dulce!

[Dave]

Looks tasty!

[syoung68]

What about making a hot ice cream like Alex and Aki?

[laurie]

OMG, that looks amazing. Pork and DDL, you are my hero.

[Carla Anderson]

You are amazing!

[missbhavens]

Oh my. Oh my, my, my. THAT looks absolutely incredible.

Mmmm...belly in my belly...

[Nikki]

Wow! Very creative!! I'm glad there are people like you out there to make delicious food like this!!

[Kimmy]

I'm just reveling in your awesomeness - that looks absolutely grand!!!

[mdstblz]

Hey thanks for the comment on my lil' ol' blog.
What a great idea for the PBDDL!
I have a couple small things I want to try based on how we used it in Ecuador, then there is a recipe I am DYING to try based on one of my favorite dishes ever... I would mention it but I do not want to give it away... my only worry is that I will have to cut my recipe in fourths to adjust for the change in jar size... I may be able to get away with halving it... I love this kind of conundrum though.

[Bryce]

Very creative and nice presentation! What else did you have with the meal (salad, appetizers), dessert??

[Beef Wellington Recipe]

Wow, this looks amazing. How do you get the photos that good?