Food, glorious food
Jan. 24th, 2010 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tree_and_leafHere's a really rather good recipe for slow roast pork belly with lentils, which originally came from Waitrose (of all places), but which I have very freely adapted:
Slow-Roasted Pork Belly With Fennel Seeds And Lentils
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1-1.5kg pork belly
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tsp salt
Possibly carrots or celery, cut into sticks (They improve the sauce, but I think you can do without them, and it does make the vegetables easier to cover. Your call.)
1 or 2 onions, cut into thin wedges
4 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into chunks
Mixed herbs
A few sprigs of thyme (optional)
A good glass of red wine
300 ml stock (preferably chicken; the appropriate amount of one of those Knorr super-concentrated jelly things is fine)
175g lentils (green or poss. Puy). Don’t use red ones, or they will probably end up still crunchy. I used dried ones and soaked them for two hours in advance (not sure how using the kind that come in water would affect timings.)
1. Preheat the oven to 250°C, gas mark 9 (nb you will need to lower them by about twenty degrees if you have a fan assisted oven). If the meat has been rolled, cut it loose and unroll it. Dry the meat thoroughly with kitchen paper. Score the top of the crackling, so that you get into the fat (important: don’t go through the fat into the meat). NB: this is a pig of a job and most kitchen knives are crap at it. I’m told the best thing is a Stanley knife, but I used a leatherman, which was fine. Crush the fennel seeds with the salt until they form a fine powder. Rub this over both sides of the pork.
2. Place the celery/ carrots (if you’re using them), onion wedges, garlic and thyme in a roasting tin. Sprinkle with herbs. Put the pork, skin side up, on top. You have to get the vegetables completely covered by the pork, or they will char, and not in a good way…
3. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 150°C, gas mark 2 and leave severely alone for 2 hours. Remove the tin from the oven, then spoon off and discard any fat, leaving any meat juices in the tin. Stir in the wine, stock and lentils around the pork, being careful not to splash the crackling. DON’T ADD SALT TO THE LENTILS NOW. (Too much salt in the cooking process makes them tough, and there’s salt in the stock anyway).
4. Return the tin to the oven and increase the heat to 170°C, gas mark 3. Cook for a further hour, check the lentils aren’t sticking every twenty minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to rest in the tin for 5 minutes. Taste the lentils, and add salt if necessary. Personally I like lentils with a smidge of sugar and a glug of wine vinegar, but that is a north German habit and may not be to everyone’s taste.
5. Eat. Om nom nom. I served it with spinach, because that was what was there, but cabbage might have been even better.
Slow-Roasted Pork Belly With Fennel Seeds And Lentils
Serves: 4
Ingredients
1-1.5kg pork belly
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tsp salt
Possibly carrots or celery, cut into sticks (They improve the sauce, but I think you can do without them, and it does make the vegetables easier to cover. Your call.)
1 or 2 onions, cut into thin wedges
4 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into chunks
Mixed herbs
A few sprigs of thyme (optional)
A good glass of red wine
300 ml stock (preferably chicken; the appropriate amount of one of those Knorr super-concentrated jelly things is fine)
175g lentils (green or poss. Puy). Don’t use red ones, or they will probably end up still crunchy. I used dried ones and soaked them for two hours in advance (not sure how using the kind that come in water would affect timings.)
1. Preheat the oven to 250°C, gas mark 9 (nb you will need to lower them by about twenty degrees if you have a fan assisted oven). If the meat has been rolled, cut it loose and unroll it. Dry the meat thoroughly with kitchen paper. Score the top of the crackling, so that you get into the fat (important: don’t go through the fat into the meat). NB: this is a pig of a job and most kitchen knives are crap at it. I’m told the best thing is a Stanley knife, but I used a leatherman, which was fine. Crush the fennel seeds with the salt until they form a fine powder. Rub this over both sides of the pork.
2. Place the celery/ carrots (if you’re using them), onion wedges, garlic and thyme in a roasting tin. Sprinkle with herbs. Put the pork, skin side up, on top. You have to get the vegetables completely covered by the pork, or they will char, and not in a good way…
3. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 150°C, gas mark 2 and leave severely alone for 2 hours. Remove the tin from the oven, then spoon off and discard any fat, leaving any meat juices in the tin. Stir in the wine, stock and lentils around the pork, being careful not to splash the crackling. DON’T ADD SALT TO THE LENTILS NOW. (Too much salt in the cooking process makes them tough, and there’s salt in the stock anyway).
4. Return the tin to the oven and increase the heat to 170°C, gas mark 3. Cook for a further hour, check the lentils aren’t sticking every twenty minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to rest in the tin for 5 minutes. Taste the lentils, and add salt if necessary. Personally I like lentils with a smidge of sugar and a glug of wine vinegar, but that is a north German habit and may not be to everyone’s taste.
5. Eat. Om nom nom. I served it with spinach, because that was what was there, but cabbage might have been even better.