After Ear to the Ground last night a number of people have asked for the recipe for this and also for the Raspberry Clafouti. I’m making the clafouti again this weekend, so I’ll take pics of that. I don’t know when I’ll have pork belly again, so I’ll just post the recipe anyway without pics - I’ll add them when I make it next.

Pork belly is kind of cheffy food, in that you see it on restaurant menus quite a lot but not many people cook it at home. I suspect that its popularity with chefs is not just because it’s so tasty but also because of the healthy profit margin to be had, it’s a really cheap cut.

I don’t know why more people don’t cook it, because it’s very easy to do. It does require time but only in the oven, preparing it is the work of a couple of minutes and could hardly be easier. It’s a perfect dish for a day when you’ll be in the house but too busy to cook anything complicated.

Here’s how I did the one on the TV, and this method is the one I’ve found gives the crispest and most delicious crackling. Who doesn’t love good crackling?

Ingredients

This amount will feed 6 people very well.

• 1 kg of Pork Belly
• 3 Onions
• About a pint of Chicken Stock (homemade is best but cubes are fine)
• Olive oil
• Salt

Get your butcher to score the skin on the pork for you, it’s a bit of a pain to do at home.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Cooking the Pork

Sprinkle the skin surface of the pork with quite a lot of salt and leave it aside for about 10 minutes. This will draw out a surprising amount of water, which you can then mop off with some kitchen paper. Dry the skin very thoroughly - the dryer the skin, the better the crackling.

While the pork is set aside, peel and halve the onions, and arrange them cut side down in a roasting pan in two rows.

Smear the skin surface of the pork with olive oil fairly generously. Sit the pork belly on top of the onions, so they act like a trivet holding the meat above the surface of the tray.

Pour chicken stock into the tray to a depth of about 1 inch or a little more - take care not to let any of the stock get on the skin side of the pork.

Put the meat into the fully preheated oven and immediately turn the heat down to 150°C, or 140°C if you have a fan oven.

You are now basically done for 5 hours.

Just check occasionally to ensure that the stock has not evaporated away, and top up with water or more stock if it looks a bit low. You don’t want the pan to dry out. Do not baste the pork at all, that’s really important, again for the crackling. Water or any watery liquid is the enemy of crisp crackling.

After 5 hours take the pork from the oven, remove to a plate and drain the liquid in the tray into a jug. Carefully slide a knife between the crackling and the meat and remove the crackling to a warm place (I leave it on a plate on top of the cooker).

Put the rest of the pork back into the oven in the now fairly dry roasting tin, skin side up, while you make the gravy.

Making the Gravy

All the time the pork was cooking, it was releasing fat and juice over the onions, which are now beautifully caramelised, and into the stock, which will now be dark brown and unctuous.

By the time you get back to it, the fat in the pan juices will have started to settle on the top of the jug. Spoon some of it away if there is too much.

Put the remaining juice/stock into a blender along with two of the halved onions and blend until smooth. Taste and season with salt and pepper if you think it needs it, though it probably won’t. That’s it. No need to thicken, the blended onion will have made it thick enough and if it hasn’t just add another one and blend again.

To Serve

Cut the pork in thick slices. Pour over some gravy. Break up the crackling along the score lines and serve on top of the pork.

Yum!

Tags: Gravy, Pork

Posted on Friday, December 19th, 2008 at 4:28 pm in Recipes
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