Trinidad & Tobago | Geera Pork

CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE I USED

So, it has been a little while since my last International Meal.  

In short, an old health issue came back with a vengeance and I needed time and energy to deal with that. It is dealt with, once and for all, and I’m back on track! Yay!

Geera Pork is highly-seasoned pork belly chopped up into bite-sized pieces and cooked low and slow on the stovetop for a while. If you do not like cumin and/or cilantro, this is absolutely not the meal for you! I love both so it's a win/win for me!

This one was a lot of work.

Aside from chopping up the pork belly, you’ll need to dice an onion and the spicy pepper(s) of your choice (I used Serranos). You’ll need to mince 4 Tablespoons of garlic though you could just use jarlic and save some effort.   I usually feel compelled to add more garlic than recipes call for but, in this case, 4 tablespoons seemed plenty.  You’ll need to wash and chop up some cilantro too. And roast some cumin seeds and then grind them up in a mortar and pestle to make roasted cumin powder. Thankfully, the roasted cumin seeds ground up very easily and that step wasn’t as labor intensive as I’d expected. It also calls for something called “Green Seasoning” which I ordered from Amazon and did not make from scratch. *

The pork must marinate for a period of time ranging from 30 minutes to overnight. I put it in the marinade early in the morning and let it sit in the fridge until I was ready to start cooking the meal (close to 8 hours).

The actual cooking process isn’t difficult but it takes some time to get the pork belly to brown up and for the fat to render down. The recipe calls for 2 pounds of pork but I found it difficult to fit that much chopped up pork into a standard sized frying pan without it being overcrowded. The overcrowding led to it taking longer to brown. Unless you’re making this for a group of people, I’d cut the recipe in half.

Anyway, it is mostly sautéing things, then letting them cook down for a bit, then adding the final seasoning and stirring.

Was it worth all that effort and time?

Maybe? 

It was jam-packed with delicious flavor and enjoyable, to an extent.

Most sites said that it is usually a food served at the bar and eaten off toothpicks, while drinking with friends, but it could also be served with rice as a meal, which is what I did. The pork belly is just too rich and fatty for a meal, for me anyway. A few bites of it at the bar would be amazing. A plate of it with rice? TOO MUCH. I’m not sure how I’m going to finish off the leftovers. Maybe chop it up even more and heat it up with diced onions, throw it in a taco shell or tortilla, and top it off some fresh lime juice? The acidity from the lime juice would definitely help.

The flavor gets a 10 out of 10 and I really want to experiment with the Green Seasoning because it is absolutely delicious. Maybe something with chicken thighs...

*Green Seasoning is a Caribbean seasoning blend made from puréed fresh herbs (like thyme and cilantro), ginger, garlic, onions, and hot peppers.