Five hour pork belly
Still a relatively cheap cut, pork belly guarantees crisp, crunchy crackling and meltingly soft meat every time. Serve with John and Lisa's summer sides for a taste sensation.
Serves 6
Ingredients - for the pork
2 kg piece of belly pork, bone in, skin on
2 good spoonfuls of salt
5 cloves garlic, crushed
2 good spoonfuls of paprika
30mls vegetable oil
4 large potatoes, cut in half
2-3 cups of water
1 lemon
Method
Preheat the oven to 160c.
Use a bread knife to score the skin of the pork in a criss-cross fashion at 1 cm intervals.
Turn the pork over and use a sharp knife to score in between the small bones, to prevent the meat from shrinking when cooked.
Squeeze the lemon across the top of the pork, drizzle over a little olive oil and massage into the meat.
In a mixing bowl combine the salt, paprika and garlic and massage in.
Arrange the potatoes in a baking tray to form a trivet and sit the meat on top.
Add 2-3 cups of water to the bottom of the tray and cover the whole thing with greaseproof paper, followed by a double layer of foil.
Roast in the oven for 4 hours. Remove the foil and increase the oven temperature to 180C. Cook for a further 1 hour until the skin is crisp.
Remove from the oven and leave to rest for 30 minutes.