This is the perfect dish to embrace two of my favorite savory ingredients in pork belly and mushrooms. Even before I lived in Boston, I always liked chowder for some reason. The idea of a warm, creamy soup with fun, random ingredients running through it was just reminded me of congee, but super Westernized. That and I was the only person in my family who wasn’t lactose intolerant(RIP to that statement since 2024), so I actually liked cream-based soups! In this case, I wanted to use mushrooms, since they are in peak season during the fall, and they have a similar texture to clams, which is probably what everyone is most used to eating in their chowders anyways. Instead of doing bacon, and in small bits in the soup, however, I wanted to roast larger pieces of pork belly instead, just to give the chowder a more robust feeling. I also had to include a potato component, so I went with confit potatoes, cooking them in oil on low heat just so that the potatoes are crispier on the exterior, but creamy and tender on the inside. This dish encompasses everything I love about the fall and winter(which is not much as a self-proclaimed cold weather-wimp who probably should get his New England card revoked), in that it is comforting and homey.

Makes 4 servings:
For the roasted pork belly:
1.5lb strip of pork belly, boneless and skin-on
salt

Sprinkle salt on all sides of the pork belly, Score the skin of the pork. Start by cooking the pork belly in a nonstick pan, skin side down, until the skin begins to brown. Then sear off the other sides of the pork belly. Transfer the belly to a roasting tray and bake at 325 degrees F for 1 hour, then at 400 degrees F for another 20-30 minutes, or until the meat is tender and the skin is crispy. Reserve any rendered pork fat for the mushroom cream and confit potatoes

For the confit potatoes:
4oz olive oil
2oz rendered pork fat
3 cloves garlic
1 bay leaf
2 russet potatoes, peeled and cut into small dice

In a pot, on low heat, cook the potatoes, garlic, and bay leaf in the olive oil and pork fat for 60 minutes – the potatoes should be crispy on the outside, and the insides should be creamy and easy to squish with a spoon. Reserve the garlic cloves for your mushroom cream.

For the roasted mushroom cream:
1 white onion, peeled and diced
1 bay leaf
a pinch of salt
a pinch of white pepper
a pinch of thyme
a pinch of oregano
2 tbsp rendered pork fat
reserved garlic cloves from the confit potatoes
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup chicken stock
4 shiitake mushrooms, stems removed
2 honshimeji mushrooms, sliced thinly

In a pan, start by sweating out the onion, bay leaf, and seasonings in half of the pork fat until the onions are soft. To that, add in the garlic confit, milk, creamy, and chicken stock. Puree everything together until With the mushrooms, toss them in the rest of the pork fat and salt, and roast them at 325 degrees F for 20 minutes. Then sear the mushrooms in a pan until golden brown. Remove the mushrooms from the pan, and deglaze it with the cream, just to infuse the soup with the sauted mushroom flavor.

For the thyme-nasturtium oil:
.1g fresh thyme leaves
10 fresh nasturtium leaves
1/4 cup olive oil
a pinch of salt

Blanch the nasturtium leaves in boiling water for 10 seconds, then shock the leaves in cold water. Wring out as much liquid as possible from the leaves before transferring to a blender with the thyme, olive oil, and salt. Puree everything together and pass it all through a cheese cloth to remove any impurities.

For garnish:
Fresh nasturitums

To plate the dish, start with the confit potatoes and mushrooms, and pour around that the mushroom cream. Drizzle over that the thyme oil, and garnish with slices of the pork belly and nasturtiums to finish.