Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Slow roasted belly pork with sage and apple

belly pork
2 apples of any kind
handfull of sage leaves
1/2 a clove of garlic
salt
pepper
pinch of caster sugar

Give me crackling any day..... HOMP!!!!! CRACK!!!! CHEW!!!!!

This is hands down one of the best ways to cook a nice big fatty shhhhhhhhlab of belly pork. Its a bit of a twist on the classic roast pork and apple sauce sunday roast and I usually have it as a side dish funnily enough or with some proper mashed spuds as a type of winter warmer... Irish soul food as it where.

To start off, season you shhhhhhhlab with pleanty of sea salt and black pepper, as even though were going to bang this baby in the oven for ages and slow roast it we want to get some crispness and colour onto the fat before hand. When he's nicley seasoned cut him up into squares, doesnt matter how big or small but I'll usually go for a kind of chubby blokes mouthfull. Does the Job. Stick a pan on and lob in some olive oil and let it get hot for a while, when the heat coming off the pan makes it uncomfortable to hover your hand above it for very long throw in a few of your pork pieces (fat side down) and crispy them up for a few minutes. Dont get ahead of yourself and overload the pan, if you do the pork will stew instead of fry... not what were after. When all of your pork has been bronzed up a treat stick it in a roasting dish of some kind and throw over a pinch of caster sugar. Core your two apples how ever you want to do this and chuck that in with the pork pieces. Roll up your sage leaves into a cigar shape a la Hanibal from the A team and shred before draping over the pork........ Bang it in the oven........ Hour and a half ish...... I love it when a plan comes together.

Serve with creamy mashed spuds and bask in the knowledge that life for the next twenty minutes will be epic.

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