Pork Belly Roast with Yorkshire Puds

Dinner party? Sunday roast? Christmas menu planning in progress??
Find out here how to make wonderfully juicy Pork Belly Roast (including crackling) and your own home-made Yorkshire Puddings (with lovely sweet red cabbage)!








Ingredients:

Main dish:

• 1.3 kg Pork belly
• Fresh red cabbage
• 2 Red onions
• Green beans
• Rosemary
• 3 cloves of Garlic
• One small Chilli
• Honey
• Butter
• Soy Sauce
• Sugar
• Olive Oil
• Rock Salt and Pepper
• Vegetable or meat buillon/ or stock
• Mushrooms

Yorkshire Pudding:

• 4 large, fresh eggs, measured in a jug
• Equal quantity of milk to eggs
• Equal quantity of all purpose/plain flour to eggs
• Pinch of salt
• 2 tbs vegetable oil

Preparation:

Pre heat oven either at 200°C with fan or 250°C without, put porkbelly in a dish and cut a fairly deep pattern into the back fat. Chop the onions and garlic up. Take a measuring jug or cup and mix half a cup of olive oil, 3 tsp of soy sauce, 3 tsp of honey, plenty of rock salt, pepper, the garlic and the chilli. Pour over the meat and use spoon or cooking brush to spread it over the fat and into the ridges. 

Mix a tsp of buillon or stock with half a pint of boiling water and pour it into the dish (not over the meat, washing the marinade away!!)

Put the dish in the oven in the centre, roast for about 15 minutes, letting the marinate crisp the future crackling, then turn the oven down to 180°with fan/200°without and cook for 1,5 hrs. 

Constantly pour some of the stock over the meat, to keep it moist. For the last hour add the red onions and a sprig of rosemary and let them cook in the remaining stock, if it has evaporated slightly, add about half a cup of water. 

To prepare the Yorkshire Puddings, use paper towel to rub vegetable oil into a muffin tin. For the batter, pour eggs and milk into a large mixing bowl and add the pinch of salt. Whisk thoroughly with an electric hand beater or hand whisk. Leave to stand for a few minutes.Gradually sieve the same volume of flour (as the eggs) into the milk and egg mixture mixing till it's lump free. Leave the batter to rest in the kitchen for a minimum of 30 minutes. 

After that, prepare the green beans and the red cabbage, chopping the ends of the beans and cutting the cabbage into very small slices, revealing its beautiful inside pattern, :) isn't it pretty?! Let 1 tbs of butter melt in a small pan, add the beans and sauté them slightly, add some rock salt and pepper and 1 tsp of honey (afterwards putting them aside, so be re-heated before serving). The red cabbage just needs to be heated up in a large pot with approx 5 tbs of sugar, a pinch of salt and half a cup of water. You can add apple juice instead of water or apple pieces to be cooked with the cabbage, giving it a fruity touch! Cook until soft but not mushy :)

Now turn the heat up again on your oven, place approx 2/3 tbs of the batter in each hole in the muffin tin and cook until golden brown approx 20 minutes.

By that time, you can take the meat and the yorkshires out, cut off the crackling and place it back under the grill for a last finish! Pour the liquid from the baking dish into the pan (no longer containing the beans) and heat up with the mushrooms and fresh rosemary (maybe add some red wine, too?!), cooking a lovely gravy! 

Cut the meat, drain any unwanted liquid from the red cabbage, re-heat the beans and serve with your home made yorkshires and the now super crispy crackling! Voilà!