Danny's Slow Roast Belly of Pork to Die For

Actually this should be renamed 'to Kill For'. Absolutely not kidding. I don't know who Danny is but this evening he is my hero. I found this way of doing belly of pork on http://www.cottagesmallholder.com/ - go there NOW and check it out. If their other recipes are anywhere near as good you will not be disappointed.

But back to the pork.

Pork belly is a cheap cut (as far as any meat is cheap these days!) and to be honest I normally get mine from a farm shop near my parents, just outside New Milton (Danestream if you're in the neighbourhood on Sway Road - http://www.danestreamfarmshop.co.uk/). The staff are friendly and no matter how busy are always willing to help and advise. Not cheap but I'd rather have a smaller piece of great meat than lots of tasteless, chewy grey stuff on my plate.

I have purchased and cooked many a pork belly from them - rub garlic and salt into the scored skin, pop onto a roasting rack on Gas Mark 5 for an hour and a half (approx 1 kilo in weight) with potatoes beneath the rack. Crisp up potatoes and crackling at the end and voila.

Now this has not always served me well with supermarket meat, still tasty but has been a bit tough from time to time. And this week, for reason too complicated to go into, the only shop I could get to was a Lidl.

Anyone who knows me will, at this point, be rolling around on the floor clutching their cramping gizzards because dear reader, and here is my guilty secret, I am a famous meat snob. It is a story for another time but it is the truth.

My normal behaviour would be to serve a mushroom omelette for Sunday lunch but those pork joints did look remarkable nice and were on special offer. So I bought one. I was certain, however, that my normal method was Not Going To Do so spent a while surfing and found this recipe. The resulting joint was soft as butter, and the crackling was everything it ought to be. Probably more.

So here it is:

Danny's Slow Roast Belly of Pork to Die For

INGREDIENTS
1 kilo pork belly joint
6 large sage leaves
3 small cloves of garlic
Salt
Pepper
Kettle of boiling water
Pieced of silver foil large enough to make nest around meat

METHOD

1. Remove pork from fridge several hours before cooking so it reach room temperature. I personally remove mine first thing in the morning for Sunday lunch - as we have marauding cats I pop it into the microwave with the door shut.
2. Score skin in a diamond pattern (smile nicely at your butcher or make sure you have a VERY sharp knife. And remember to NOT score down to the meat - just to the layer of fat beneath the skin)
3. Boil kettle of water and carefully pour over skin side - I used a cooling rack for the meat so I don't boil my fingers
4. Dry meat off with kitchen towel
5. Turn skin side DOWN
6. Finely chop garlic
7. Rub sage leaves into small pieces (I varied here from original recipe as they suggest rosemary)
8. Rub garlic and sage into underside of joint
9. Press foil over the belly to make sure that the herbs will not shift
10. Turn the whole lot over, crackling side up, and form the foil into a nest
11. Leave the crackling exposed
12. Pop into roasting tin
13. Roast at gas mark 4 for 3 hours and then turn down to gas mark 3 for another hour
    If roasting potatoes, pop them in (having part boiled them) when turning oven down
14. When time is up remove meat and bump up oven to gas mark 7
15. Remove crackling from joint and put back into oven for 20 minutes (alongside potatoes)
16. Serve (with Danestream apple sauce naturally)

I don't know if it was this recipe that made the pork so tender and tasty or if my snobbery is misplaced, but I am crediting the recipe. Way to go Danny!