Marinated Pork Belly

What is great about it is that it is simple with very few ingredients. I love the caraway component in the process.

Marinated Pork Belly

Ingredients

1kg/2.2lbs pork belly (ask your butcher to score the rind)

1–2 tbsp oil (to sear the rind)

Marinade ingredients

1 tbsp oil

2 tsp salt

2 tsp caraway seeds

750ml/3 cups white wine

Preparation

Ensure that the tray that you are using to roast/braise the pork is not too big. That way you will not need to use excess wine to cover the pork (excluding the crackling).

Goes Beautifully With

Glazed baby carrots and boiled or steamed green vegetables.

Servings

This recipe produces 4 serves.

NOTE: This method is part roasting and part braising. The meat is placed in the oven without a rack and uncovered hence the roasting yet it is cooked in a liquid which is where the braising component comes in.

Method

Mix the marinade ingredients together (excluding the wine) and rub all over the pork. If you like add extra salt. Make sure that you get deep into all the cracks and crevices of the scored pork rind.
Place uncovered in the fridge overnight. Otherwise let it rest uncovered at room temperature for approximately 2 hours. Turn oven to at least 220°C (430°F) fan forced. Allow up to 30 minutes to heat up. In the meantime sear the rind on high heat for about 5 minutes. This helps to dry for better crackling as well as helping “kick start” the browning. After approximately 5 minutes and a little browning, remove.
Place the pork (rind side up) onto the same tray that you used to sear the rind. Once the oven temperature has reached 220°C (430°F) place pork in the oven. Check in approximately 30 minutes as to the progress of the rind browning and crackling. This process usually takes 45 minutes.
Once you are happy with the dryness and browning of the rind, remove the pork belly from the oven and reduce the temperature to approx 170°C (340°F).
Pour the wine into the tray up to BUT NOT TOUCHING the crackling. Hopefully you will be using a tray only big enough to hold the meat so that you do not have to use extra wine. DO NOT POUR THE WINE OVER THE CRACKLING AT ALL!
Put back into the oven uncovered and let cook 3–4 hours/until the meat is tender. At this stage the wine will have evaporated and the rind will be brown, hard and in some areas, bubbly.
If you are not happy with the cracking then place the tray back in the oven on approximately 220°C (430°F) to bring back to high heat. The crackling will dry further and the rind will rise further as well.

Tip: When it comes to slicing the pork to serve, the choices you have are:

to slice with the skin on or to
remove the skin simply by lifting it off.

For more on cooking red meat to perfection visit www.yourmeatmate.com