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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Roasted Belly of Pork with Cain's Gravy


This is an adaptation of a Richard Fox recipe that caught my eye recently. Why? Because it involved Belly Pork, possibly my favourite cut of any meat ever. So versatile, I think Belly is starting to get the recognition it deserves. Anyway, this is basically a slow-cooked belly, perfect for slicing, and the gravy is all made in the pan. The secret ingredient is beer - in my case, Cain's Raisin Beer. Richard reccommends a full-bodied Yorkshire beer, but I found the juicy and slightly floral nature of Cain's Raisin made an excellent gravy.

Serves One Yorkshire Lass and One hungry Yorkshireman
you will need;

A good hunk of belly; about four/five ribs.
Tin of chopped tomatoes
1 stick of celery
1 leek
2 carrots, chopped and peeled
Half a bottle of Cain's Raisin Beer
300ml Chicken Stock

For the dry rub:

2 cloves garlic
Chopped parsley, Thyme, Oregano, Rosemary
Salt, Ground Black Pepper

1. Pre-Heat your oven to 150-160 degrees
2. Score your belly pork; rub the dry rub into the skin and leave to stand while:
3. ...You add all your chopped veg into a roasting tin. Over the veg, pour over the tomatoes, stock and finally the beer. Mix a little.
4. Lay the Pork on top, and roast for about 4 hours.

This is a perfect meal for putting in and forgetting about - but keep an eye on it if you don't know your oven inside-out; you don't want that juicy pork to dry out. Over time, the veg softens into the liquor; creating a tasty gravy so chunky you won't need additional accompaniments, in my opinion.
If you fancy making this and use another beer, let me know how it turns out. Any robust beer should do the trick, and you'll get different flavours every time.

5 comments:

Heather said...

Ah, beer and pork. Two great tastes that taste great together. I've never seen that beer before, I'll have to look for it.

Thanks for linking me, Leigh! You have a nice spot over here.

Anonymous said...

Sounds like a tasty recipe there Leigh, belly pork is a much underrated cut of meat. I'm also a big fan of "fire and forget" cooking like this so I may give it a bash.

My favourite cut of meat is cheap and tasty, rolled shoulder of lamb. My good lady friend cooks it "a la Hugh Fearnley". We first has it when I took her to River Cottage for tea for her birthday, I preferred it to the roast and sliced cuts of lamb on the same plate.

It involves cooking it on gas mark 0.5 (half) all day which give us plenty of time to go and get the veg from the allotment. We generally serve it with roast home grown squash, carrots, potatoes and whatever else is available in the garden / allotment.

Any update on your shed to brewery experiment?

Leigh said...

John - that sounds great - im certainly getting into slowcooking these days - it just goes together with beer so well. We have a top-heating oven which doesnt lend itself well to slow roasting, but we are getting the hang of it. As for the brewing project - no movement yet. There's a couple of loose panels on the shed i need to replace, and then i'll start looking into brewing kit. Gonna start small though - that's the advice i've got thus far from most people, including yourself. needless to say, it'll be documented on here!
Heather - the pleasure is all mine - i love your site!

Ale Louse said...

Sounds like another winner. Michaela (MOH) is always looking for new ways to do belly pork (it's an Italian obsession apparently!) and coincidently Cains Raisin is one of her all time favourites - so this one can't miss! Will let you know.
Off topic - can you confirm whether the range of bottled beers from Brew Dog are still available at the North Bar? We're planning a visit in a few weeks and some folks here are ever so slightly nuts about the stuff! Cheers Leigh.

Leigh said...

hi mate - yes, please let me know how that works out. As for North, last time i was in there (bout a fortnight ago) they were only stocking 'The Physics' amber beer - however, i am going in on Thursday so i will keep you informed. Its a range worth trying - as i know you appreciate!