Slow roasted pork belly, a great way to make a cheap cut of pork taste soo goood! What I often like to do with pork belly or pork shoulder is to slow roast it, let the fat melt away and then let the meat soak in the flavour and become tender.
A pork recipe I love is crackling pork belly/shoulder served with mustard sauce, but since I make it quite often my partner was keen to try something new and bought home some pork belly and asked me to cook a different style roasted pork belly (like at a fancy restaurant, he said). I love spices and I know they go very well together, I went to my spice cupboard and found a jar of my grounded fenugreek hidden in the corner, the combination of spices and pork was heaven. I marinated the pork belly with a few other spices and then slow roasted it in 1/2 a bottle of chardonnay surrounded with flavourful pre-cooked veggies for 2 hours. The plan was to serve it with mash, but guess what? The potatoes I added to the roasting tray also absorbed the sauce and they tasted really good whole so I served them the way they were.
Note: you can’t really go wrong with slow roasted pork belly, but what I prefer when cooking pork belly is to have the skin crispy. Not as crispy as the crackling, but crispy enough so it wouldn’t be soggy and taste like fat. To get the crispiness I wanted, I marinated the pork skin with just enough salt to allow the skin to harden while roasting. Also to maintain the crispiness of the skin, its important to remember to never add cold water into the hot tray which will steam and soak the skin. Another thing to keep in mind is not to overfill the vaking tray with liquid; instead when filling the tray only add enough liquid to a level below the skin.
Marking a shallow line around the potatoes helps to allow the potatoes to season by absorbing the sauce while roasting.
Cook everything in the same baking dish if it’s oven safe, I transfer it from my pan to a glass oven dish because my pan isn’t oven safe. I didn’t cook my sauce in the glass oven dish because it’s a bit long for my stove top.
SLOW ROASTED PORK BELLY
Prep-Time: 10 mins Serve: 2
Cooking Time: 2 hrs
Ingredients
500g pork belly
1 tsp fenugreek
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
Salt for rub
3-4 potatoes
sauce
1/2 bottle white wine, chardonnay
8 whole peppers
2 bay leaves
1 star anise
2 coriander root
4 cardamon
1 red onion, chopped
1 brown onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, smashed
8 cherry tomato, halfed
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil
Method
Preheat oven at 180°C Fan Force.
Wash and pat the pork belly dry. Placing on a chopping board with skin facing up score the skin with a sharp knife into diamond shapes. Rub the skin with fenugreek, 1 tsp grounded salt or enough salt to cover the whole skin area. Sprinkle the cumin seeds between the diamond shapes then rub and press the cumin seeds down into the skin and fat to secure. Rub off the extra spices on your hand onto the bottom side of the pork belly and set a side.
Heat oil in a pan/oven dish over high heat, toss in onions, coriander roots and garlic into the heated oil and then cook for 2 minutes to soften the onions. Now add in the chopped tomatoes, bay leaves, pepper, star anise and cardamon. Stir for another 2 minutes to allow the tomatoes to soften a little and allow the spices to give out fragrant.
Make room in the middle of the pan/oven dish and place the pork belly skin down to sear for 3-5 minutes or until the skin partly cooked. Turn the pork belly over and leave it to cook for another 2 minutes before adding the wine. Once adding the wine, let it cook for 3 minutes to get rid of the alcohol contents and then pour in the water and salt. Let it come to a boil and then transfer into an oven dish (if you are using a pan and the pan is not oven safe). Place in the oven and cook for 1 hour and 45 minutes to 2 hours.
Wash and mark a shallow line around the potatoes. After the pork belly has been roasted for 45 minutes, place the potatoes in the same tray around the pork belly and leave to roast for further 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove from the oven after 1 hour and 45 minutes – 2 hours and leave it to cool for a bit before plating.
Transfer the sauce into a sauce pan and cook the sauce for 5-7 minutes to reduce and then top the reduced sauce onto the plated roasted pork belly and potatoes.