I carry no phone An aspiring Luddite In a wired world. Mastodon Verification Link	Jeff Berry is an early adopter of the Internet and the Web, a late adopter of Twitter, and declines to adopt Facebook. With the death of Google+, he migrated to the Fediverse. He admins a medievalist Mastodon instance. He hates cell-phones.

Summer, as previously noted, is hot. So this week, I continue working with some recipes that do not require one to fire up the oven and contribute to the overall hotness of one's kitchen.

If you are a regular, or even semi-regular, visitor to this website, you will have noticed that I like pork belly. Roasting was right out, which is my usual method, so I cast about for alternatives. I could throw it in the crock pot, but I wanted a bit more of a firm texture than eight hours in a crock pot allows. Braising seemed like a good idea, and after some thought, I decided on stovetop braising after a sear to get some crunchy brownness on it.

I did use the crock pot to cook some black beans, though, to make a cold bean salad to go with the pork belly. A simple green salad rounded out the meal.

• a slab of pork belly, between 1 and 1.5 lbs
• your favorite dry rub, or salt and pepper
• red wine, broth, water, bean juice from the black beans, or a mix

Put the skin into a moderately hot frying pan and cook it until the fat has rendered out and the skin is crunchy and delicious. Remove the skin, or rind if you'd rather, and set it aside. Add a bit more fat, if there isn't enough - lard or bacon grease if you've got it, olive oil or vegetable oil if you don't. Sear your belly for a few minutes on each side, adding more seasoning if needed. Eat the pork rinds while you are doing this.

Pack the belly tightly into a small pot or saucepan. Pour any remaining grease in the pan onto it. Add enough liquid so that the belly is about two-thirds covered. This liquid can be almost anything, but it will be your sauce, so choose wisely. I used the salty red wine that I had been marinating the onions in (see below). Broth would be a good choice, too. Water is fine, but you'll either need to add seasoning to the sauce or give up on the idea of sauce completely. In any case, put your saucepan on the stove and bring it up to just the barest simmer, a delicate bubble rising now and then to the surface like a blooming flower. Cover the pot and let it simmer for an hour and a half, perhaps two. Go back in ten minutes, though, and check your heat. When you cover it, more heat is retained and your gentle simmer may have become a riot of boiling chaos. If it has, turn the heat down, cover it again, and check in another few minutes.

Remove the pork and let it rest for a few minutes, while you kick up the heat and reduce the liquid. Taste the sauce and correct the seasoning. Don't fret about getting the liquid too reduced, unless you want to; a simple jus is adequate. Cut each piece in half and serve, with the sauce on top and around.

• black beans
• garlic
• pickled onions
• feta or feta-style cheese

If using dry beans, soak them overnight. I add a little baking soda to the water, it seems to help. Drain and rinse and toss in the crock pot. Make as much or as little as you want, I started with a cup or two of dry beans and ended up with a lot more, as one does. Add some garlic. As you can see from the picture, I used about ten cloves. Cut the garlic in halves or quarters, but there's no need to mince it. At least, I see no reason to mince it. Toss that in the pot, too, cover with water and cook on low for six or eight hours.

The beans are done when they are soft, but still firm. Drain them and save the juice, it makes a good soup base for certain soups. Let them cool thoroughly.

Take some pickled or marinated onion, as much as you like, I used a third of a cup, perhaps, and chop it. The onions ... let me digress.

I've been doing some wine-washed rind cheeses lately. Which means that I make the hard cheese, then soak it for a day or two in salty red wine before aging. Which means, in turn, that I have salty red wine left over. So I've gotten in the habit of slicing an onion or two and marinating them in the salty wine for, well, until I need them. They come out pretty and pink, and with just a bit of the bite taken out. So that's the onion that I used. (And some of the salty wine went to braising them pork belly as well.)

Anyway, add the onion to the cooled beans. Add some feta, again to taste, a quarter of cup or more. Mix it up and taste it. Depending on how salty your cheese and pickles are, you may or may not need to add salt. Add pepper if you like, or maybe some cumin. Serve it forth.