Pork belly is just delicious......sweet, juicy meat topped with a salty crackling top.... pure heaven.... but easy to get wrong!
This is a simple recipe and hints and tips to create exquisite roasted pork belly for your family.
Buy the best quality pork you can..... it doesn't have to be a fancy-pants named breed, or organic; just excellent quality from a reputed pig farmer who has looked after his pigs and encouraged them to live a happy healthy lifestyle.
In general, we find the larger the sheet of pork belly you have the easier it is to get the results...... so make a point of using this recipe for a large family and friends gathering....
Roughly chop up a few onions, carrots, celery, garlic, bay, sage, rosemary and put the lot of it in a deep roasting tray..... this little lot is your trivet for the pork belly and will create your delicious gravy.
Place your pork belly on top of the veg & herbs; skin side up...... we remove the ribs for cooking and use them on top of the vegetable trivet as it continues to supports the meat, preventing it from curling during cooking and adds a delicious dimension to the gravy as well as fantastic chef's perks for later!!.
A half decent butcher will be happy to do this for you..... but make sure you keep the ribs.... don't let him snaffle them ok!!
Add your stock; we use good vegetable and chicken stock, made fresh, not from powder / packet sources.... you will need a good couple of pints of excellent stock. Also add a pint or so of good cider.
The belly should now be pretty much covered up to the skin level by the cooking liquors; the skin should be fully exposed, dried and then rubbed liberally with olive oil and lots of salt.
Loosely cover the pork belly roasting tray with double aluminium foil and cook for at least 3 hours in a moderate oven.
Check that the fat of the pork is rendering down during this slow cooking time..... keep removing this fat with a spoon throughout cooking so as to not spoil your gorgeously developing cooking liquor.
When you are satisfied that the fat has rendered sufficiently (don't render it completely away.... what would be the point of fatless belly pork????), take out of the oven, off with the foil, remove the belly off it's vegetable trivet, drain and keep your cooking juices, sieving out the veg and herbs, keep this prized liquor safe.... you will need it later.
Now, put the belly back into the roasting tin (which is now clear of juices, veg and ribs), dry the skin with paper towelling and cover generously with olive oil, salt (lots) and pepper and put back in the oven, now on it's hottest setting and let that glorious skin turn into cracking crackling!
Timing here depends on a lot of factors affecting the belly; it's moisture content for starters and how long you've already cooked it for..... check it every 15 minutes until you are satisfied with your crackling.
If you aren't serving this straight away out of the oven.... pork belly is pefectly happy to be reheated in a hot oven which further renders any stubborn fat and improves on the crackling!
Your juices....... ok, get this into a saucepan and bring to a fierce running boil....reducing the quantity by about half to intensify the flavours...... now taste it, season if needed.
Add some redcurrant jelly, a couple of fresh sage leaves and heat back up; remove the sage leaves before serving though.
To be honest this pretty much rounds off my job here..... get it carved into satisfying bricks of pork belly, lay it on some simple buttered mash with home made chunky apple sauce and carrots or cabbage and put some of your gravy on the plate not the belly.....leave that cracking crackling to speak for itself!
Most of all..... enjoy!
