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 instead

• Roast 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