We take great pride in sourcing the highest quality ingredients possible to put into our creative new school poboys here at the shop. We feel that the awesome bounty of natural, local and artisanal products available at a chef's fingertips now are a great boon to the diner. Below we are highlighting one of those products :
We had the pleasure recently to sit down and chat with Abigail Beeler, of Beeler's Family Farms, our source of the naturally raised pork bellies we use at Killer Poboys and learn more about their product.
The pigs are raised in large communal shelters where they have free roaming access to outdoor areas, sunshine, water and feed, which is completely vegetarian. They are never given any growth hormones or antibiotics, and are raised to maturation by weight not age, if it takes the hog 9 months to get to the proper weight, then that is how long it takes. The farm has developed their proprietary breed of heritage stock pigs, with excellent fattiness and flavor. Here is a linkto beelers farm http://www.beelerspurepork.com/index.htm
We firmly believe that the key to cooking great food is using great ingredients, and know that our
" Dark and Stormy " Pork Belly Poboy would not taste as delicious without a superior cut of meat.
We marinate the bellies in the flavors of the Dark and Stormy rum cocktail, because rum, ginger and pork sing so well together. Althought traditionally the cocktail is made with very dark rum , we use Old New Orleans cajun spiced rum mixed with Steen's Cane Syrup ( another great product ) and copious amounts of fresh ginger. The addition of the cane syrup gives that mollasses aroma and body that is present in the cocktail, while the ginger creeps with a pleasant bite, balanced with the heady aroma of rum. After a rub of kosher salt and a massage of marinade we let the belly ride for at least 12 hours in the cooler, and then gently roast them, cool them and eventually slice and glaze them with more of that killer sauce for each Poboy. Glazed, hot and sticky we dress the belly up with a squeeze of fresh lime, our mellow house aioli, and a crunchy and pleasantly sour lime cabbage slaw.
We are happy that our guests have been enthusiastically embracing the "Dark and Stormy" Pork Belly Poboy here at the shop. For being integrally a very fatty piece of ,meat, I feel our use of Belly gives a pedestal to showcase the richness and umami of that awesome pork fat, draped in the flavors of a classic Tropical cocktail. What better way to taste a little bit of New Orleans, the city sharing so much history and culture with sugarcane, rum and the Caribbean.
