Pork belly was once one of the cheapest meats and slightly despised, though we cooked it in strips with a spicy tomato sauce for the kids. It has become fashionable in the English food revival, so it is not as cheap as it was. In a Dales pub this summer I was served it as a flabby square, with thick white fat and tough meat, on cold mash to boot - a disgrace to food and to the inn itself - which shall remain nameless but you know who you are!
I've put a recipe on before for cooking it in a sauce either in the piece or in rashers. Recently we have roasted it slowly in a piece either boned and then rolled around a simple stuffing of grated apples and sage or, with the bone in, drenched in a barbecue type sauce. It is juicy, tender and good. A butcher will score the rind properly - a supermarket piece rarely has proper cuts for crackling.
Cajun Pork - a title suggested by B because I burnt the crackling this time and he liked it.
For 3/4 : 2lb piece belly pork from a good butcher who has scored the rind. For more eaters buy a bigger pice - the sauce will be enough for several more. Unwrap it and keep in the fridge till you need it to let the rind dry out.
Barbecue Sauce
3 tbs tomato ketchup
1 tbs honey
1 tbs wine vinegar
Juice 1 lemon
1 tbs brown sugar
Pinch chilli flakes or chilli powder
I've put a recipe on before for cooking it in a sauce either in the piece or in rashers. Recently we have roasted it slowly in a piece either boned and then rolled around a simple stuffing of grated apples and sage or, with the bone in, drenched in a barbecue type sauce. It is juicy, tender and good. A butcher will score the rind properly - a supermarket piece rarely has proper cuts for crackling.
Cajun Pork - a title suggested by B because I burnt the crackling this time and he liked it.
For 3/4 : 2lb piece belly pork from a good butcher who has scored the rind. For more eaters buy a bigger pice - the sauce will be enough for several more. Unwrap it and keep in the fridge till you need it to let the rind dry out.
Barbecue Sauce
3 tbs tomato ketchup
1 tbs honey
1 tbs wine vinegar
Juice 1 lemon
1 tbs brown sugar
Pinch chilli flakes or chilli powder
- Mix sauce, taste and make sure it is hot enough and hits your tastebuds with the necessary sweet/sour/hot sensation. To be very Cajun add more chilli.
- Rub the pork rind with olive oil and then lotsof salt, working it into the rind.
- Put the pork in a tin into a hot oven, No 8, for 30 mins till it is golden.
- Now pour the sauce over, add a couple of spoonfuls of water, cover with foil and cook in a slow oven, No 3, for another 1 1/2 - 2 hrs, basting once.
- For the last 20 mins, once you are sure the meat is very tender, uncover and turn the heat back up again to recrisp the rind and perhaps to get that blackened/Cajun look if you like it.
- Let the meat rest before cutting it into chunks and serving with rice and something green, like cabbage. You can reheat and reduce the sauce by putting the tin onto a ring and letting it bubble up.
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