Belly pork, you enjoy in two stages: first, when the crackling breaks in your mouth with a crunch, like flaky pastry; secondly, you find the perfectly tender layers of fat and meat melt on your tongue.
INGREDIENTS. Serves 4
A bunch of thyme, roughly chopped
1 bunch of rosemary, roughly chopped
A head of garlic, cloves peeled and crushed
150ml olive oil
1 piece of pork belly, weighing 2–3kg
1 bottle of white wine
coarse sea salt and black pepper
Preheat the oven to 250°C.
Place the herbs, garlic and olive oil in a heavy-duty blender or food processor and purée them roughly.
Lay the pork belly in an oven tray, skin-side down, and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Use your hands to spread the herb mixture evenly all over the top, pressing it on so it sticks to the meat.
Turn the belly skin-side up, score with a Sharpe knife, wipe the skin dry with kitchen paper and sprinkle sea salt evenly all over the skin (but don’t put too much on as it might create a crust and prevent the crackling forming). Put the tray in the oven and roast for 1 hour, turning the tray around every 20 minutes.
Once the skin has formed some crackling, turn the oven down to 170°C pour the white wine into the tray (avoiding the pork skin) and continue roasting for another hour. If the belly starts turning black, cover it with foil.
For the last cooking stage, turn the oven down to 110°C and continue roasting for another hour, until the skin has crackled completely and thoroughly dried.
Remove the pork from the oven. Use a sharp knife to divide it into segments of a few ribs, cutting between the rib bones.
Serve PLUM AND GINGER RELISH
Original Recipe Yotem Ottolenghi, The Cookbook
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