one pot wonder...

Pork belly. Its a seriously under-rated cut of meat. It is fatty, but its also incredibly tasty and delicious. And its perfectly easy to cook and adapt to feed as many people as you need. You can't do this dish wrong... All you need is 3 hours.

Generally I get my Pork belly whole, and I get about 2lbs (1kg) of meat to feed my family of 4 with some left for lunch. But I sent my hubby to get the meat and he came back with it all in strips. No problems.

So this is what I did...

Put pieces into a roasting tin, season with salt and pepper. Make sure that the skin side is facing up. This is the only really important bit. Cos if the skin is up it will get nice and crispy. And this is what you want.



Put the tin (uncovered) into the oven on the highest heat you have. Gas 9, 230degC.  Leave it in the oven for about an Hour.

While I wait for the meat  I peel and roughly chop the following:
6 medium Potatoes (1.5 per person)
4 medium Carrots (1 per person)
3 medium onions

Slice through the middle of one whole house of Garlic, keeping the houses as intact as you can.



When you take the Pork out of the oven, a lot of the fat will have cooked out of the meat and the skin should be crispy. Take the meat out of the pan and put it aside.


Pop the veg into the roasting tin along with the fat and toss everything nicely so that the veg is coated in the fat. Put the garlic into the tin among the veg.


 Put the meat back into the tin, on top of the veg, pour about 80mls of water into the tin, put the lid on and put it back into the oven, turn the heat down to around Gas 5, 190degC. Let all this cook, covered for about an hour.






After this hour is over, uncover and put it back in the oven for another hour, so the skin can really crisp up.

Then, if your belly is whole, carve into strips and plate up, or if its already in strips, plate up.

Yum.