Pork belly is one of my absolute favourite cuts of meat of all time, I love it! If it is on a restaurant menu I can not resist ordering it and it is our Sunday roast of choice at home!
Pork belly is a classic and you don’t need to do much to it to make it beautiful, as long as you master the crackling! You will need a few hours at home to allow time for it to cook, so this is the perfect weekend dish.
I pop cut up root vegetables and whole apples in the oven on a tray tossed with olive oil, salt and rosemary, 2 hours into the cooking of the pork roast, so that I have a complete roast meal. Or you could serve the pork belly for a lunch with salad.
Pork Belly with Crackling
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Caralee - Real Food Pledge
Serves: 6
Ingredients
- 1.3 kg pork belly, approx
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 onions
- 1 garlic bulb,
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sprig fresh rosemary
- 3 cups vegetable stock
- 1 teaspoon arrowroot flour
Instructions
- Turn oven to the highest temperature that your oven will go and set aside a baking tray.
- Remove the pork belly from the packet and dry the skin with paper hand towel or sit in the fridge covered in paper hand towel to allow it to dry for an hour or so.
- Using a very sharp knife to score the skin down to the meat, without cutting into the meat itself.
- Pour the olive oil over the top of he pork belly and sprinkle over the dried rosemary, dried thyme & salt and rub into the skin. You want as much of the seasoning as possible to get down into the cracks in the skin.
- Cut the whole garlic bulb in half with the skin on, peel the onions and cut in half.
- Place the garlic, onion and a spring of fresh thyme into the bottom of the pan.
- Place the oven tray into the oven and leave it on high for 15 - 20 minutes or until the skin of the pork belly is golden brown. You may need to leave it longer. Don't turn the oven down until the skin has cracked.
- Turn the oven temperature down to 170°C and slowly roast for a further 1.5 hours.
- Add 2 cups of vegetable stock to the bottom of the pan and continue cooking the pork belly for 1 hour.
- Remove the meat carefully from the oven and have look to see if the meat pulls away easily. If it doesn't then put back in the oven until you get the desired result.
- Take the meat from the tray and place onto a wooden board and allow to rest while you make the gravy.
- To make the gravy strain any left over liquid from the oven tray and place it in a saucepan over a medium heat.
- Add 1 cup of vegetable stock and a sprig of fresh thyme and rosemary, allow to simmer on the stove top for five minutes.
- Sprinkle 1 teaspoon or arrowroot into the gravy, whisking as you add it to avoid any lumps forming.
- Cut the pork belly up into slices and serve with the gravy and vegetables of your choice.
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