Pork Belly !!!!!

Belly of Pork is one of my favourite cuts of meat. It is indulgent, comforting and has always been a staple on our catering menus.

As always the best place to purchase it is from your local craft butcher, talk to your butcher about what meats you like what way you like to cook them. Maybe give your butcher a few days notice for the belly as they wont always have it in stock.

What your looking for in a good pork belly is for the fat to be white, dense and creamy. Large scale produced pork has a porous fat on it, this should be avoided. I prefer rind off for most recipes but the rind on will give a great crackling if you like it.

When preparing I normally just trim a bit of excess fat off, it usually gets more fatty at one end, then I just season with salt and black pepper place in a deep sided roasting dish. I put about a half inch of water in the dish then cover with greaseproof paper & then tin foil. Pop it into the oven at about 180 degrees for 3 hours.

The next bit is where my method differs from just about everyone else's. After 3 hours take the pork out and leave it rest in its own juices for about 45 minutes still covered with foil. At this stage the pork should be cool enough to handle. I wrap the pork completely and tightly in cling film. This will keep in all the juices but be careful as it will also slow down the cooling so leave it another half hour before you put it in the fridge. I normally leave it in fridge overnight but after bout 4 hours it should be ready to slice.

I slice the belly about an inch thick (I am a glutton like that!) then fry it in a very hot thick based pan. The pan doesn't need oil as the fat will render off the belly slices. This process does 2 jobs. First it will render the fat out of the slices and believe me you will see exactly how much fat comes out into the pan .Secondly it will crisp up the slices . Once the slices are crispy on bot sides pat them down with a paper towel and serve. I usually serve them with the Potbelly recipe signature BBQ sauce (that's a blog for another day) but the are also great as a roast dinner with potatoes vegetables and gravy, with Hoi Sin sauce and Noodles, with fried rice or with Sweet Chilli in a wrap...

The advantages of doing this compared to say ribs is that in my experience people shy away from ribs on the bone at parties as its messy to eat them but because the belly is boneless they can be eaten with a knife and fork.

I can honestly say they are our most popular item at barbecues I get asked a lot for the recipe so here it is...