Slow roasted pork belly

Photographer: Adam

I’ve probably mentioned before that I love slow roasting stuff. Not only is the meat spoon tender but it’s just that much tastier – I think in general the cuts you use to slow roast are more flavoursome. Plus I’m a sucker for easy and slow roasting is easy. So no surprises this Christmas season that I decided to make slow roasted pork belly.

I plan to make this for Boxing Day to celebrate my birthday and make up for the lack of cooking that’s going to take place on Christmas day – my mother has enforced Christmas lunch at the local golf club, less stress apparently. My inner foodie struggled with this concept though and I demanded a rerun. The way I had envisioned Christmas this year was lounging out under my parent’s small orchard sipping on mint tinted icy beverages with my belly full of good food. I’m just going to have to make up for it by making Boxing Day a feast to remember!

INGREDIENTS


1-2 pork bellies (scored and salted the night before preferably)
1 cup of sage leaves
1 tbsp of oil
Salt
Pepper
250ml of milk
350ml red wine

METHOD


1. Oil and season the pork bellie(s), place on top of sage leaves (evenly distributed) with skin facing up.
2. Grill on high for roughly 20 minutes or until the skin begins to brown.
3. Adjust your oven on bake to 155°C, pour milk into tray, this will keep the meat moist but allow the skin to continue to crisp. The total cooking time needs to be three hours, but you can push it to four for ultimate tenderness.
4. After an hour and a half pour one third of the wine into the tray, repeat as the tray dries up, this will keep the pork belly moist and give it some nice flavours.