Caramalised pork belly on Crab and fennel Risotto with Laibach Merlot 2004

Who'da thought pork belly would go with crab - and with Laibach Merlot? Chef Arnold Tanzer, that's who. Anna Trapido reports.

Sometimes original insights are offered with such uncomplicated clarity that once they have been uttered one can't imagine ever having been without them. Arnold Tanzer, Executive Chef of classy catering company Food on the Move, is full of such straightforward, thoughtful reflection.

Over a langorous lunch of Laibach Merlot 2004 paired with caramelised pork belly and crab risotto, he observes that "when matching food and wine it is the food that must pair itself to the wine because the wine is already there. It's done". In recent years, South African chefs have expended considerable sound and fury on disparaging local wines as food dominators. So, it is refreshing to find one who wants to "remove the chef's ego from food and wine pairing and get on with the job".

And get on with the job he does. When presented with the challenge of creating a meal to match the highly rated Merlot, he "sampled it at different temperatures and with different degrees of airing in order to evaluate its characteristics. Once its core traits had emerged and I felt that I understood the conditions under which it showed up best, I was confident to work the food in around it".

He argues: "Food and wine pairing is not complicated when you listen to the wine. The older I get, the more I want to simplify such matters. When you are young you are so busy trying to show off posh technique that it tends to interfere with an ability to think clearly about such matching."

The result of his careful consideration is a rich and complex array of tastes and aromas in which "the cinnamon notes in the Merlot are carried through in the braising liquid, plum and bitter chocolate flavours support the sweetness of the palm sugar caramelised pork belly, and creamy Mascarpone-laden crab risotto acts to cut the effects of the relatively high alcohol".

Tanzer's culinary infusion of skill and whimsy is facilitated by the elegance of the wine because "it is so graceful that I could play with ironic notions of 'surf and turf' without worrying about being perceived as tacky". As we savour the last of the risotto he expands on his "passion for the flavour combinations that are possible when one pairs the bounty of land and sea" and reveals that he is writing a cookbook with "a whole chapter dedicated to the perfect melange of richness and lightness that can be achieved with such recipes".

As he takes a final sip of the Laibach, he pauses to consider his creation and then adds, "Although, if you think about it, my pork and crab plate is not so much surf and turf as scuttle and oink."

 

Caramelised Pork Belly
On crab and fennel risotto with seaweed oil (Serves 4)

Pork
800g pork belly, skin removed

Braising liquid
750ml chicken stock
½ cup kecap manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
3cm piece ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 pieces dried naartjie peel
1 cinnamon stick, crumbled

Combine all the braising ingredients and 2 cups water in a saucepan and gently bring the mixture to the boil. Pour the hot braising liquid over the pork, cover tightly with foil and braise at 160°C for 2½ hours or until very tender.Remove pork from braising liquid and discard all braising liquid. Refrigerate pork until cooled.

Caramel
90g dark palm sugar, grated
200ml red wine
100ml well reduced chicken stock
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
Heat the palm sugar in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat, without stirring, until sugar dissolves and caramelises. Gradually stir in the red wine.
Add the jus, vinegar and simmer until mixture is the consistency of caramel.

Risotto
200g crab meat
2 Tbsp olive oil
100g fennel bulb trimmed and
finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
300g arborio rice
1l chicken stock
20g butter
1 Tbsp chopped chives
100g mascarpone

Heat the oil in a large saucepan, add the fennel and cook, covered over low heat, until soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the garlic and rice and stir over medium heat until rice is coated and lightly toasted, then add stock.

Add 1 cup stock to rice mixture and stir until stock is absorbed. Add remaining stock, ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly and allowing each addition to be absorbed before adding the next. With the last addition of stock, add butter, chives, mascarpone and the crab meat. Cover and let stand for 5 minutes.

Seaweed Oil
2 sheets nori, toasted and crushed
1 cup olive oil

Warm the oil and add the nori. Leave to infuse over low heat for 1 hour, leave to cool and then blend.

To assemble
Heat two tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan and cook pork, fatty side down, until heated through, then drain on absorbent paper.
Serve pork immediately on a risotto, drizzled with caramel and seaweed oil.