FLOWER POT KITCHEN: SWEET SOY & LEMONGRASS GINGER STICKY SLOW BRAISED PORK BELLY

18 Mar 2013

SWEET SOY & LEMONGRASS GINGER STICKY SLOW BRAISED PORK BELLY

SLOW ROASTED BELLY PORK MARINATED IN CRABBIES GINGER BEER WITH SOY SAUCE, SUGAR, STAR ANISE, LEMONGRASS AND FIVE SPICE.

WoW ! What a fantastic mouth melting sweet sticky aromatic pork dish and well worthy of the 24hr marinating time. What makes this even more special is that it is our first tasting of our home reared pork belly and it did not disappoint.

INGREDIENTS

1 large whole piece of bell pork skin on or off

(skin on more fatty but a bit of crackling too!)

THE MARINADE

1 lrg bottle crabbies ginger beer

200g soft dark brown sugar

2 sticks of bashed lemongrass

3 whole star anise

1 tsp five spice powder

150ml dark soy sauce

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 lrg spring onion bashed

Place your belly pork in a deep roasting tin, add all the marinade ingredients and stir well, cover with tin foil and place in your fridge for a minimum of 24hrs, less will be ok and if you only have a few hours (min 2) that is perfectly ok and probably only makes a 30% difference overall, it is just the longer you leave the marinated meat the deeper the flavour penetrates into the belly pork.

Pre-heat your oven to 170 degrees and place your marinated pork in, leave to cook for approx 3 hours, if your belly pork has skin on and you want crackling, remove the foil after 2 hrs of cooking, pat dry the skin with paper roll and sprinkle over some sea salt, place back in the oven for the last hour un-covered to allow the skin to become gorgeous crackling, the marinade sauce will also reduce to a lovely glaze for the finished dish.

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LIFE MY PASSION

Welcome to my daily life of cooking, one winters day many years ago my family and I were all inspired by a back to back rainy day of River Cottage this got us to stop talking about and start actually doing, suddenly three weeks later eight vegetable beds were dug, greenhouse erected and our first vegetables were propagating, this was the start to raising and growing our own food, our fabulous son Oscar changed our path in life which lead us to sell our small thriving restaurant of 10 yrs and to start our new life (Terrifying!) a life of the self sufficient in touch with nature and seasons, taking a step back and looking forward to a slower change of pace and making the most of every moment.

My passion for cooking was stronger than ever and having time at home with Oscar I found I had a new direction and I was no longer striving for perfection, I was suddenly very passionate for the enjoyment of the other side of food, something I had not realised, being the Chef/Cook and every other duty of your own small restaurant made me see that I never actually took time to cook what I wanted!

So there I was muddy boots and hands digging deep in more than one sense and I found myself transported back in time to where everyone grew some of their own food, it is a wonderful world with a real sense of achievement and loss, Slugs Snails and Caterpillars! But thats another story! Childhood memories of summers when I lived with my grand parents reminded me of so much that I had learnt about the make do and mend generation that I had forgotten.

Now as a family we love our free wild food days where we gather what nature has provided, have gone from being mini mini garden urban small holders, who did raised pigs at home because we could not wait to find land and supporting ourselves from our garden to now owning a very small farm that allows us to grow more vegetables for the whole of our family and neighbours, raise our own gorgeous Gloucestershire Old Spot pigs, (Sausages!) and pets! Dorset Down sheep, chickens for eggs and pet goats! Suddenly having large quantities of produce started to wake up the Cook in me!

The Cook was awake that part of me that wants to cook for the masses and I found myself setting up Flowerpot Kitchen, a Farmers Market Stall, I wanted to use our honest raised meats and make old fashioned pork pies, rabbit pies and game pies from the local game keeper along with old fashioned techniques and the best hot water crust pastry. This in turn grew to a small cottage industry from home weekly supplying three farm shops and a deli along with also attending three farmers markets A few years later there came a time when my son Oscar's health changed and it was an easy decision to stop.

I still hold the occasional pop up 40 seater restaurant or gourmet lunch which we do for local charities for the love of sharing food and to remind that Cook in me why I love our go slower self sufficient life!

So here I am sitting amoung the vegetables watching the chickens loving that every season nature teaches me something new and that nature is in charge! She has taught me to just go with it and grow. Give it a try from a tray of salad on your windowsill to a few tomato plants it all counts.