As part of my goal to cook more I had a go at doing pork belly tonight. This was using a recipe my sister cooked for us a few months ago, which I’ll share here. This is for 1-1.3kg of pork belly, which should be enough for at least four people (pork belly is very filling) and it takes about 3 hours to cook:
- Pre-heat the over to 180c. Chop up five large onions into large pieces and lay over the base a flat, over proof pan.
- Score the rind of the pork belly lines 1cm apart, you can ask your butcher to do this for you as it’s pretty tough going. Luckily for me my local butcher (the amazing Ginger Pig) were one step ahead of me. Lay the pork belly over the onions, then pour oil over the top and rub in sea salt and crushed peppercorns to taste.
- Put the pan in the lower part of the oven for 1 hour, then remove and baste the pork belly. If there’s not much juice add some water.
- Continue cooking at 180c for another 1 1/2 hours, basting every 15 minutes. During this time, peel the potatoes and start them boiling near the end of the cycle if you’re having mash.
- Rub 2-3 teaspoons of honey over the rind and put back in the over at 200c for 30-40 minutes. At this point you need to baste every 5 minutes or so keeping an eye on it to make sure the rind doesn’t catch fire or burn.
- Remove the pork belly and cut into reasonable size portions and serve over the potato, with the onions & juice over the top.
Mmm.. delish. Also more of a winter dish than a balmy spring night light meal, but in my defence it was quite cold at the market this morning when I decided to try it.