Roast pork belly - how many lbs, what to cook with

Coriolanus

Cooking mothers day dinner for the family and want to do pork belly. I've done it a few times and its always gone down well. Can't find my cook book that had it though so can't figure out how much to buy. Cooking for five to six, two, possibly three women and definitely three very hungry lads.

Also stuck on sides. Doing roasties and grainy mustard mash for potatoe but other veg? Could just steam some carrot and broccoli and leave them without sauce since the rest will be kind of heavy.

Any suggestions.

trackguy

I use Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall's guides for cooking meat, they're usually spot on. For pieces above 2kg, roast on a high heat (230c) for 30 minutes. For smalled joints, roast for 20 minutes. Turn the heat down to 160 and roast - 30mins for every 500g.

As far as sides go, you could rub the pork with crushed salt, pepper and fennel seeds before roasting. Serve with mash, roasted vegetables and a nice, sharp apple sauce.

You could cook it Asian-style too. Rub the pork flesh with crushed sichuan peppercorns, salt, pepper and five spice powder. Roast as before. Serve with some stir-fried vegetables in oyster sauce and some steamed rice.

matrim

Personally I love pork belly with a Hoisin sauce

muckety

I have also used Hugh Fearlessly Eatsitall's guide. He says go in about 6 ribs from the thick end (you may have a good bit over but thats OK cus its lovely cold). Wider doesn't really matter to cooking time, its thickness that counts.
Also - google Jamie Oliver's slow cooked pork belly (where he cooks it on top of some veg which then flavours the juices for the best ever pork gravy).
Another tip - have your butcher cut the ribs off but bring them home and cook the meat on top of it for more flavour... (you can fight over who gets to eat the ribs :-) )

Darkginger

Roast parsnips are good with pork - so is mashed swede (turnip - the yellow, big one) - something about the sweetness of those veg complements the pork. I like to serve sage and onion stuffing with mine, too - and gravy of course - there has to be gravy! Mangetout or snow peas go well, or baby corn. Apple sauce is a must. I've heard that red cabbage is good with pork, but am not a red cabbage fan, having only had it pickled.

Edited to add: 1kg of belly pork feeds 2 greedy people - about 3 ribsworth each - it would easily stretch to 3, and I'd serve 2 x 1kg pieces for 6 people. There's never enough crackling though, so if your butcher sells this separately, buy more!

Coriolanus

Great ideas folks, keep em coming.

nompere

I've been using this recipe to some degree of acclaim.

http://cucinarebecca.blogspot.com/2006/05/slow-roasted-pork-belly.html

Sometimes it needs a little blast of the grill at the end to crisp up the crackling. The long slow cooking does take a lot of the fat off the belly.

trackguy

nompere wrote: »

I've been using this recipe to some degree of acclaim.

http://cucinarebecca.blogspot.com/2006/05/slow-roasted-pork-belly.html

Sometimes it needs a little blast of the grill at the end to crisp up the crackling. The long slow cooking does take a lot of the fat off the belly.

That looks amazing