On the weekend, I saw a piece of pork in the meat display and thought I’d make a few meals from it during the week.
Recipe
Ingredients
- Pork belly
- Salt
- Rice — White, long grain
- Beef broth
- Beef fat
Equipment
- Knife
- Aluminium foil
- Oven
- Saucepan with lid
Instructions
Pork
- Score the skin with a knife. A clean box cutter blade is perfect for this purpose. Make the cuts skin deep and in a crisscross pattern.
- Season the pork generously with salt.
- Dry-brine the pork for two nights. Place the piece of pork on a rack and leave it uncovered in the refrigerator for two nights. Dry brining dries the skin and helps ensure the muscle-meat remains tender and juicy.
- After dry brining and before cooking, heat the oven to 120 °C.
- Wrap the base and sides of the pork with aluminium foil and then place it in a baking tray. This process avoids exposing the muscle meat to direct heat, keeping it moist. The exposed skin will dry further in the oven heat and make the development of crackling easier.
- Cook in the oven at 120 °C for 2 hours, and then
- Cook in the oven at 220 °C for 30 minutes. This second step creates the crackling.
- Rest the meat for about 15 minutes.
- Cut the meat.
- Serve the meat.
- Eat the meat.
Rice
- The day before you plan to cook the pork, cook some rice.
- I like to wash the rice in a bowl of water.
- Swish the water and rice with your hand in the bowl and decant the water.
- Repeat the process until the water is clear.
- For cooking the rice, the amount of water necessary is about double the volume of the washed rice.
- Bring the water and rice to a simmer and stir slowly to avoid the rice sticking to the saucepan. As the rice absorbs the water, keep an eye on it until it’s cooked the way you like it.
- Transfer the rice to a bowl and cover it. Place it in the refrigerator overnight.
- Just before you plan to serve the pork, gently reheat the rice in a saucepan. I like to add a little beef fat and some beef broth while it’s reheating. The fat and broth will be absorbed and add some flavour.
Thoughts on the meal
The meal was great. The crackling was crispy and crunchy. The meat was tender and juicy.
Photographs
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