FLOWER POT KITCHEN: JUICY SUCCULENT ROAST BELLY PORK WITH FOOL PROOF CRISPY CRACKLING

7 Feb 2016

JUICY SUCCULENT ROAST BELLY PORK WITH FOOL PROOF CRISPY CRACKLING

Brilliantly moist and succulent roasted pork belly with crispy crackling skin, it is the method that will guarantee crispy crackling every time, its really very simple. The key is to have a dry skin before you start, a very hot oven 220 degrees C and some sea salt, that's it!

Prep time 10 minutes / Cook Time 45 minutes / Rest time 5-10 minutes

Ingredients

(serves 4)

Belly Pork

1 kg organic or local farm pork belly

1 tsp coconut oil

1 tbsp sea salt

Fabulous Buttery Mashed Potatoes

1 kg King Edward potatoes

250g butter YES 250g!

sea salt and white pepper

1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

Pre heat your oven to 220 degrees C, grease a flat baking tray with the coconut oil and place you pork belly on the tray, pat the skin dry with paper roll, sprinkle over the salt and place in the oven at this high temperature for 30 minutes, then turn the heat down to 180 C and cook for a further 15 minutes, Once cooked take out of the oven and leave to rest for a minim of five minutes to relax the meat and let all the juices settle evenly in the belly pork, thus ensuring a juicy pork belly.

Once the pork belly has been in the oven for 15 minutes peel the potatoes, cut into four and place in a deep saucepan of boiling water, simmer for 30 minutes until fork tender, tip the potatoes out in to a colander and leave to drain for a few minutes, place the saucepan back on the lowest heat, add the butter and allow to just melt, add back the potatoes, sea salt, white pepper and white wine vinegar, mash with a masher keeping some texture. I personally like to push my potatoes through a ricer so that the mash is silky smooth, but for my husband I use a masher as he likes some small hint of possible lumps !!! This I will call texture and apparently some top chefs do this to !

Serve a generous dollop of creamy buttery mashed potatoes in the centre of your plate and then top with thin slices of your gorgeous juicy succulent and crispy belly pork, I like to serve with a side of homemade quince and apple sauce.

Homemade Apple & Quince Sauce

2 apples peeled & diced

1 quince peeled & diced

4 tbsp cider

4 tbsp unrefined brown sugar

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan and bring to a simmer, as soon as the apples and quince are squishy soft your apple sauce is ready.

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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.