Pork Belly with Sloe Gin - cooked by Alix

Featuring a hair dryer. The crackling on this was so good, I dream about it. This is a weekend dish as the cooking time is lonnnng.

The original recipe is by Rachel Khoo but we didn't follow her serving instructions as we'd run out of lettuce. I can see why the lettuce would be good to offset the fattiness, but in these lockdown times lettuce is a luxury! Also I have no idea how her onions look like that after so long cooking. Most of ours were over so we picked out the usable ones from the middle.

Ingredients

• 500g piece boneless pork belly, skin scored and patted dry (recipe says 1kg but that would be too much for 2).

• 1tbsp sea salt flakes

• 4 red onions

• 1 unwaxed lemon

• 200g thick Greek yoghurt, or 1 cup

• A pinch each of sugar and sea salt
  

For the marinade

• 150ml sloe gin

• 6 tbsp runny honey

• 2 tsp white pepper

• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar

• 200g red currants or mixed berries (frozen are fine), plus a handful to garnish. We used these frozen berries without the strawberries..
  

Method

1. Mix the marinade ingredients in a shallow glass or ceramic dish.

2. Place the pork in the dish, skin-side up, making sure that the marinade doesn’t touch the skin. Chill, uncovered, for 4 hours or overnight.

3. Preheat the oven to 240°C fan / gas 8.

4. Pat the skin of the pork dry again with paper towel. Place on a plate, setting the marinade to one side, and use a hairdryer for 2-3 minutes to remove all the excess moisture from the skin. This is an important step. Only twice in my life has crackling worked fully and both times it involved a hair dryer.

5. Rub the skin with salt flakes, getting into the scoring.

6. Peel and quarter the red onions and place at the bottom of a roasting tin, then pour over the marinade.

7. Lay the pork belly on top, skin-side up. Roast for 30 minutes.

8. Turn the heat down to 170°C fan / gas 3 and roast for 2½-3 hours, or until very tender.

9. Remove the pork from the oven.

10. Take the onions out and set aside.

11. Turn up the heat again to 240°C fan / gas 8 and place the pork back in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until the skin is crispy.

12. Remove from the oven and when cool enough to handle, separate the skin from the flesh.

13. Finely zest the lemon and mix into the yoghurt with the sugar and salt. Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

14. This is the point at which we veered from the recipe. We served it with Butter Herb Rice and paratha with the yoghurt on the side.
    

The original recipe version is:

1. Slice the pork into slivers and chop the skin into crouton-sized pieces.

2. Cut the lettuce into thick slices, then wash and dry (keeping them whole).

3. To serve, place a lettuce slice on each plate and top with the pork, onions, skin and berries.

4. Drizzle with the yoghurt.