(Another) Pork Belly
Continuing the FatSteak Club’s obsession with pork belly, I came across an interesting brining recipe that I wanted to try, but with a few tweaks and without the overnight soak.
I knew I wanted crispy crackling, and an intensely savoury taste to the meat. Drying out the skin overnight is the key to the first, and a powerful rub the second. A spice mill or coffee grinder makes the preparation easy.
Ask your butcher to thinly score the skin, or grab a sharp knife and score through to the fat. If you can, buy a piece of belly with the bones attached. Ask the butcher to remove the bones, but keep them to use as a trivet.
Step 1 - Prepare your rub and treat your meat
Put the star anise, fennel seeds and bay leaves in a spice mill or coffee grinder
Blitz to a fine powder
Add the salt and paprika and blitz again
Make sure the pork skin is scored sufficiently to produce strips of crackling when cooked
Flip the pork skin side down and rub the spice mix into the meat
Flip back over and put into a container and leave in the fridge overnight, uncovered, to dry out the skin
Step 2 - Roast the pork
Take the pork out of the fridge and hour before you want to start cooking
Heat the oven to 150C / gas mark 2
Put the pork bones in the base of a roasting tin as a trivet
Top tip: You can use a rack, or make a bed of carrots and onions insteadRoast for at least two hours or until the meat comes to an internal temperature of 75C
Turn up the heat to 220C / Gas mark 7 for 30 minutes to finish the crackling
Top top: if the crackling isn’t crackled you can either finish it off under a hot grill, or strip the skin from the meat, and finish upside down in a hot pan
After the meat has rested for a good 20 minutes slice into generous chunks, crackling on the side, and vegetables if you desire!
Ingredients - Savoury pork belly
2kg pork belly with the bones
3 bay leaves
4 star anise
2 tbsp fennel seeds
3 tbsp sea salt
1 tbsp smoked paprika
