Last Order Date For Christmas Delivery: Sunday 15th December

flat pork belly

Method

  1. Remember to remove your flat pork belly joint out of the packaging, pat dry and bring to room temperature.
  2. Pre heat your oven to 200°C temperature fan assisted or 215°C without a fan.
  3. Scald the pork rind by pouring over a full kettle onto the skin over a clean sink with the pork resting on a wire tray.
  4. Season the joint just prior to roasting.
  5. Choose a large, heavy based roasting tray, ideally with deep sides and handles for easy movement.
  6. Season with good quality fine sea salt rubbing into the score marks on the skin.
  7. Make a trivet by roughly chopping equal amounts of onion, carrot and celery or my preferred choice of celeriac, the root of the celery plus a bay leaf, sprig of thyme and a few black peppercorns, another nice addition can be a bramley apple peeled and quartered to the trivet.
  8. Place the pork skin side up onto the trivet which should line the base of the tray.
  9. Place in centre of oven and roast for 20 minutes then reduce the temperature to 180°C then continue roasting for 40 minutes per 500g reaching a core temperature of minimum 75°C.
  10. Remove from oven and pop onto a clean tray and keep warm by covering with a sheet of tin foil then resting for a minimum of 20 minutes before carving, leaving the roasted vegetables in the tray for the gravy.
  11. For the gravy I make up 500 ml of essential cuisine chicken stock, then deglaze roasting tray with this stock stirring all the caramelized juices from the tray, then pass through a fine sieve pushing all the juices from the vegetables into a clean sauce pan, bring to the simmer and thicken if required by whisking in a teaspoon of corn flour mixed with a little cold water and reduce till you reach a rich glossy gravy.