XMAS ORDERS CLOSED - Delivery Thurs 19th November

Roast Crispy Pork Belly

Ingredients

1 x Pork Belly 1.6-2.0kg with or without bone
1/4 Cup Sea salt flakes
1 x teaspoon fennel seeds (optional)
2 onions roughly cut in wedges
1 bottle apple cider/ 250 ml apple juice
Sea salt

Method

  1. The day before cooking...take pork of vacuum bag and rinse in cold water. Pat dry with paper towel and leave for five minutes on the bench to dry a little more.
  2. Using a very sharp knife (preferably a Stanley knife with the blade set at 5-10mm), cut the skin of the pork into ribbons about 0.5cm deep at 1cm intervals. Do not cut all the way through the fat into the meat of the pork rack but just into the very top of the fatty layer.
  3. Massage 1/2 the salt into the sliced skin and bottom side thoroughly and put into the fridge uncovered in a baking tray skin side down. We like to weigh the pork down with something heavy to flatten the skin 
  4. The next day, wipe any excess moisture off the skin side of the pork and apply the rest of the salt, fresh sage and fennel seed to the pork skin, pushing into some of the crackling
  5. Pre-heat fan-forced oven at  temperature 180 degrees.
  6. Chop desired roast vegetables and place on a separate baking tray with a little vegetable oil and sea salt.
  7. Place pork skin-side down in the oven tray for 90 minutes at 180 degrees on the middle rack of the oven - put veggies in oven after pork has been cooking for about 45 mins on a separate tray
  8. Remove pork from oven, turn oven up to 210 degrees
  9. Throw onions into the baking tray under the pork (now right side up) and tip apple cider into the baking tray
  10. Bake everything for another 30-45 minutes or until the blistered crackling is looking just how you want it. You may have to turn the pork tray around a few times if the oven does not heat evenly.
  11. Remove pork to rest on a baking tray then scrap all the pork, cider and onions into a sieve and strain the sweet gravy/juice
  12. To carve, remove the small set of ribs from the bottom of the pork belly. Cut firmly down through the crackling between one of our scored lines (about every 2 cm) and portion with veggies
  13. Gravy/Sauce goes on the table to pour over the top