Pork belly
After having seen like a gazillion episodes of Masterchef Australia featuring pork belly, we – ofcourse – had to try it ourselves at home. Now finding a good piece of pork belly here is not so simple. I definitely think that the cut is very different, making it more fatty and less meaty. We also found that preparing the pork belly in the wrong way, gives a very unpleasant pork flavor. It’s hard to describe what I mean with pork flavor but if you’ve tasted it, I’m sure you know what I mean!
This recipe was the winner and ofcourse I had to share with you as well!
The pork was part of our mystery box we did with friends and comes from the Livar pig. Not a bad piece of meat for sure! This dish is delicious with the potato pumpkin puree and a winner if you have guests. It’s fatty but you’re not gonna eat it everyday so that’s ok… 😉
Pork belly
Ingredients
- 1.5 kg of pork belly bone and skin removed. Cut the fat into diagonal shapes
- 2 tsp sunflower oil
- 1 tsp white peper corns squashed
- 3 large onions cut
- 2-3 tbsp of clear honey
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 red chili seeds removed and chopped finely
Pumpkin puree
- 1 kg pumpkin
- 1 kgs potatoes
- 2 tbsp of milk
- 50 gr butter
- salt pepper
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 C. Put the piece of meat with the fat on top on a rack on a baking tray. Drizzle some of the oil over it and than lightly press the crushed peppercorns on top with some seasalt. Put in the oven for about an hour. Remove from the oven and ad some of the released juices over the meat. Bake for another 1,5 hr and pour the juices back over the meat every 20 minutes.
- Put the cut onion in the baking tray under the pork. Mix the honey together with the cumin and the chili. Brush this over the pork and increase the heat to 200 C. Bake for an extra 30-40 minutes, brush every once in a while, until you have a nice caramelized and crispy skin on the outside. As soon as the meat is cooked remove from the oven and let it rest for about 10-15 minutes.
- As soon as you have the pork resting, heat the baking tray on the stove and add two tbsp of water. This will make sure that all the baking remains come loose from the bottom. Season the onions with salt and pepper and divide across 6 plates. Cut the pork into 6 portions and serve on top of the onions. Pour any remaining liquid over the pumpkin puree.
PUMPKIN PUREE
- Peel 1 kg of pumpkin and cut into pieces. Season with salt and pepper and leave this to roast in the oven for the last 30 minutes of the baking time til soft.
- In the meantime cook the potatoes in salted water in ten minutes until soft. Drain and puree with 2 tbsp of milk and 50 gr butter.
- Add salt and pepper. Mix the pumpkin with the potato until smooth
Disclaimer
The nutritional values above are calculated per portion. The details are based on standard nutritional tables and do not constitute a professional nutritional advice.
G’day! While I’m not a big pork belly fan, I know what you mean re preparing it the wrong way and the smell Simone, true!
Your recipe and photo look delish and know first hand how even subliminally Masterchef can inspire a desire in all of us using ingredients and techniques we have never done or used before too!
Cheers! Joanne
Thanks so much Joanne! Yes It did take us three attempts before we managed to create a recipe that we all thought was delicious. Pork belly without crisp outside is a definite no no!
I love pork belly both in Asian dishes as well as slow roasted with crispy crackling. Yours looks wonderful!
O yes definitely Maureen! It’s perfect in Asian dishes!
I see this and I think BACON! That would definitely be my number one use (if not only acceptable use) of pork belly. But I have to admit that you made it look pretty darn good. Who knows, you might have just tempted me… 😉
You know I never really thought to make my own bacon with a pork belly but now that the seed is planted in my head I am so going to try this at some point in the very near future!
I don’t know if I would be brave enough to make pork belly. I’ve had it excellently made and would hate to ruin that good memory. Now what I wonder is if it’s the bacon not cured. It looks similar.
Yes I can see how that could be an issue Angela. Pork belly is not featured here a lot on menu’s although I did have some in Belgium somewhere in the past. It might very well be bacon not cured.. 😉
I use pork belly mainly in Asian dishes (it’s wonderful when red-braised). And someday I’ll try making my own bacon with it. In the meantime, I should try this – really lovely recipe. Thanks.
Thanks John and yes that bacon making is now on my list too! I think I still have a piece of pork in the freezer!
Stunning
I will make this recipe – have made many and have lots of gorgeous Tamworth Pork Belly in the freezer as I write. On another note – the recipe translation has some errors you might want to check out – that your other site never had. You will see them immediately.The instructions are perfect. These two headings:
Instructies – Instructions
Ingreienten – Ingredients
You can probably fix them in the back end for the future, somehow.
I am still salivating over the photos! And, making your own bacon is super easy. We have done it (post on my site) and have a great little deli that will smoke a huge slab for us for 5 dollars.
He Valerie!
I will def have a look at the bacon on your site.. 🙂 As for the recipe headings; yes as it turns out they don’t translate so those are the Dutch ones you’re seeing. As that is how I set it up initially. I changed it back to English now as it is easier for the Dutch to read English than vice versa.. 😉 Thanks for pointing that out!
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