Pork Belly With Wild Huckleberry Sauce

Photo: Melissa Peterman

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil

8 ounces pork belly

1 shallot, minced

2 garlic cloves, smashed

coarse salt

cracked black pepper

3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup syrah wine

1 1/2 cups fresh huckleberries

1/2 sprig fresh rosemary

1 sprig fresh oregano

2 fresh sage leaves

3 tablespoons brown sugar

Preparation

Preheat oven to 300F.

Add olive oil to a medium saute pan over high heat. Season and sear pork belly on all sides. After searing the pork belly on all sides, remove it from the heat and set it aside. Next add 1/4 cup of finely chopped shallots and sauteed them over medium-high heat with a good pinch of salt and pepper.

Deglazed wit balsamic vinegar and syrah. Next add 1 cup of huckleberries, 1/2 sprig of fresh rosemary, two fresh sage leaves, a fresh oregano sprig, two garlic cloves, smashed only slightly and a sprinkling of brown sugar.

Bring the pan to a simmer and let the sauce work it's magic for a couple minutes. Next add the seared pork belly back to the sauce, covered it and let it cook at 300 F for almost two hours, turning the pan half way through cooking. Once the meat is more than fork-tender, removed the pan from the oven and onto a plate and cover the pork in the sauce and sprinkle on another handful, or the remaining huckleberries for color and a nice tang to balance flavors.