The Pork Belly Latte sounds like a drink and looks like a dessert but is actually served as a small plate on bleu Restaurant’s new fall menu. The fall menu will be around until February. The dish is pork belly topped with the components of a deconstructed latte.
Braised in a mixture of coffee and vegetable stock that is later used in a reduction sauce, the pork belly is then cut into a 4-ounce portion and pan-seared in olive oil until it reaches the desired crispiness. Then, shallots, hazelnut foam, cauliflower vanilla puree, coffee reduction sauce and chocolate-covered espresso beans are plated with the meat.
The creaminess of the hazelnut foam and vanilla cauliflower puree pairs well with the fatty, melt-in-your-mouth pork belly. The meat is encased in a crispy skin that puts bacon to shame.
Executive Chef de Cuisine Charles Williams thought of the idea walking down the street drinking coffee. He knew they had pork belly at the restaurant and wondered what would happen if he braised it in coffee.
“I’ve never seen coffee and pork belly go together,” Williams says. “So let’s try coffee because it’s something different.” In the past, he’s experimented with braising the cut of meat in cherry beer, apple cider and Summer Shandy.
“If you love coffee, you have to try it,” Williams says. “The crispy pork belly goes with the richness of the coffee, and if you like drinking lattes, I think the vanilla and the cocoa powder and hazelnut foam really bring those flavors out.”
