My turn tonight (Saturday), and we were at ALDI and they had some good looking pork belly...I like leg roasts, but the 4 of us and a 7-800g piece of Pork belly gives no wastage.
Decided to drop the seasonings altogether, and get back to simple flavours before upping the ante on flavour in future endeavors.
Took the oval casserole dish (like this one)
And flipped it upside down, placing the pork belly meat side down in it...filled it to 1/4" below the lip with a dry alcoholic cider, and put the base on top as a steamer roof.
Into the oven at 180F for 3 hours, topped up the cider once (took an entire stubby, 375ml over the whole process).
At 2.5 hours, put on some potatoes, butternut pumpkin (squash in some eyes), brown onions into a baking tray with some duck fat, and put them in alongside the still steaming pork.
At 3 hours, took the "dome" off the pork, and raised the temperature to 220F to crisp up the pork crackling.
Put down a bed of brussels sprouts in the middle of the nearly baked potatoes, and placed the pork atop the sprouts, trying to cook them in the pork flavours, but protect them a tad from the blast of het at 220F.
Took the cider from the baking container into a small frypan, brought it to the boil, and added a pink lady apple, chopped medium fine, and cooked it down to a glaze with apple chunks...added a teaspoon of grainy mustard just as it became a glaze and mixed it through.
Pork crackling worked well, the pork meat itself was close to pulled pork in consistency, could be pulled into strings, but didn't fall apart. Inverted the pork on the chopping board, cut through the meat to the crackling, then a blow to the back of the knife with a rolling pin cut the crackling neatly.
Pork, roast potatoes, pumpkin, onion and brussels sproats, and a little broccolini, with a mustard apple and cider (call it a chutney maybe ??) for the pork.
Decided to drop the seasonings altogether, and get back to simple flavours before upping the ante on flavour in future endeavors.
Took the oval casserole dish (like this one)
And flipped it upside down, placing the pork belly meat side down in it...filled it to 1/4" below the lip with a dry alcoholic cider, and put the base on top as a steamer roof.
Into the oven at 180F for 3 hours, topped up the cider once (took an entire stubby, 375ml over the whole process).
At 2.5 hours, put on some potatoes, butternut pumpkin (squash in some eyes), brown onions into a baking tray with some duck fat, and put them in alongside the still steaming pork.
At 3 hours, took the "dome" off the pork, and raised the temperature to 220F to crisp up the pork crackling.
Put down a bed of brussels sprouts in the middle of the nearly baked potatoes, and placed the pork atop the sprouts, trying to cook them in the pork flavours, but protect them a tad from the blast of het at 220F.
Took the cider from the baking container into a small frypan, brought it to the boil, and added a pink lady apple, chopped medium fine, and cooked it down to a glaze with apple chunks...added a teaspoon of grainy mustard just as it became a glaze and mixed it through.
Pork crackling worked well, the pork meat itself was close to pulled pork in consistency, could be pulled into strings, but didn't fall apart. Inverted the pork on the chopping board, cut through the meat to the crackling, then a blow to the back of the knife with a rolling pin cut the crackling neatly.
Pork, roast potatoes, pumpkin, onion and brussels sproats, and a little broccolini, with a mustard apple and cider (call it a chutney maybe ??) for the pork.
