I don’t often cook Pork but this recipe is so easy and so tasty I made it twice last week to feed the masses. If you need something that doesn’t use a lot of pots and have no time to spend in the kitchen then this is the one for you. The whole preparation takes less than 5 minutes and then you forget about it for 3-4 hours. A lot of the fat dissolves when cooking, I was amazed at how little was left.

This will feed 6 people no problem.

What you need

2 kg piece of pork belly skin on (ask the butcher for a piece that has as little bone as possible)
2 15cm pieces of Rosemary or about 2 teaspoons dry rosemary
6 sprigs fresh Sage
1 liter Ginger beer
300ml water
1 teaspoon cracked black pepper
2 large pinches of salt crystals

The process

Place the pork belly in a roasting pan (the sides should be at least 6cm high.

Pour in the ginger beer until it is almost at the level of the skin and then top up with water until the liquid touches the highest piece of the belly… Don’t worry of it goes a little over the edge and onto the skin.

Place the Cracked pepper corns, Rosemary and Sage into the liquid and then sprinkle the salt onto the skin and into the water.

Now cover with aluminum foil and place it in a 170 Celsius oven for 3-4 hours.

You don’t need to check on it or watch it, just leave it and do what you need to.

After 4 hours remove from the oven, increase the oven temp to 250 Celsius.

Remove the Pork belly from the liquid and peel off the skin, it’s the same as removing the skin from a gammon, it will peel of pretty easily.

Now place the pork belly back into the hot liquid and cover it up again.

Cut the skin into strips about 3cm wide and 10cm long, then place on a baking tray and pop back into the oven to crisp up.

The skin will pop and jump around on the tray but don’t worry when they are blistered white and light brown, they are done. (get as much blistering on each piece as possible)

Slice the pork belly and place on a serving plate then take a little of the juice from the oven dish and spoon over the meat.

Done and dusted, serve with mash, peas and gravy.

Gravy

Strain off 300ml or so of the liquid into a small pot and add 1 stock pot (these knorr stock pots are fantastic) bring it to the boil and add about 1 tablespoon Bisto. Simmer until nicely thickened.