Fennel and Rosemary Pork Belly
I really wish someone would breed a pork species which had a fat free pork belly. Because it’s a weakness of mine – crunch crackling atop layers of soft stringy white meat interspersed with smooth fat. Alas. Pork belly makes my belly porky too. And so it is reserved only for auspicious occasions. Well there wasn’t really one this time, but a girly cooking session. I dragged out a recipe from my Australian Gourmet Traveller Magazine. It certainly looked simple enough, but I wasn’t sure whether it would have enough flavour. Silly me. Pork belly needs no flavouring! Such a simple recipe, but it’s basically 1kg of pork belly. Rub it with one tablespoon each of chopped rosemary and chopped fennel seeds (on top and on bottom). Put in an oven preheated to 240 degrees celcius. Cook for 30mins, then turn oven down to 180 degrees and cook for another 30mins. Sorry but I have no idea how to translate that time into a different meat quantity because I tell you, it just came out PERFECTLY. Okay maybe there were some slightly chewy skin bits, but overall – the flavour had subtly scented the meat; and the fat had rendered ever so slightly to keep the flesh moist – and meld with the flavours to create pan juices to pour over the sliced meat. Needless to say, it needs to be rested for 10 mins before serving. We got 4 servings out of this 1kg. Adjust accordingly for different apetites. No salt, no oil, just those three simple ingredients.