Saturday 22 June 2013

I screw up pork belly

Geez, how hard can this be?

Pork belly
50 g garlic, chopped
15 g anchovy fillets, drained and chopped
3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked 
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 rosemary sprig, leaves picked 
pinch of salt 
25 ml pomegranate molasses 
1 kg piece pork belly, bones removed
200 ml olive oil
400 ml water

To make the pork belly, preheat the oven to 100˚C. Add the garlic, anchovy, thyme, star anise, cinnamon, rosemary, salt and pomegranate molasses to the bowl of a food processor and process until smooth. Rub the flesh side of the pork belly generously with the paste. Line a baking dish with baking paper and place the pork inside, skin side up. Drizzle the skin with olive oil and season with salt. Pour the water around the pork, transfer the dish to the oven and cook for 10–12 hours until completely soft. (You can refrigerate the pork at this point if preparing ahead.) 

Increase the oven to 220˚C and cook the pork for a further 10–14 minutes or until the skin is crisp.

Well, if you're me, it's hard beyond belief. I read the list of ingredients, then read the bit about mixing stuff in the food processor, so I threw all the ingredients for the rub into the processor and then tipped in the oil.

Oops.

The pork belly is now cooking confit style in the oven. If you can slow bake duck in a thick layer of fat, why not slow bake pork belly in a sea of olive oil?

This is either going to be an epic disaster, or it will be fantastic. I don't think it will get 10-12 hours in the oven - more like 7, and then we're having it for dinner.

Assuming it's edible.

PS - it turns out that 50gm of garlic is an entire head.

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