I can’t believe Christmas is over already! 😦 This makes me a bit sad, because it is, by far, my favourite time of the year. My favourite time from this Christmas was probably eating this pork belly. It was that good, even if I do say so myself. Pork Belly is hands down, one of my favourite foods in general. If the piece of tender meat along with the layer of juicy fat isn’t enough to whet your appetite, then the thick slab of crispy, salty crackling (that should always be there) surely must!

The recipe that I used was awesome to say the least, and it will certainly be making a regular enough appearance on my kitchen table. I searched for awhile to find a recipe I was happy with, and that didn’t seem too hard, because pork belly is definitely not the easiest thing to cook. I really loved the roasted apples that went with the pork, because they were all lovely and caramelised from the butter and brown sugar I put with them in the oven, and it was a welcome change from the standard super sweet store bought apple sauce! Plus, the whole apples look much nicer on the plate, too.

I’m not going to worry about writing the recipe out for you, because I followed it word for word from Taste.com, my go to site for awesome recipes. You can find it here. If you are going to try cooking pork belly yourself, I have a couple of tips for you. Not that I am an expert on the subject, but they certainly helped me out. Firstly, ask your butcher to score the pork rind for you, it makes preparing the meat a lot easier. Second, do not be afraid of salt! Salt will draw moisture out of the pork, and create crispy, crackly goodness. I put three layers of coarse sea salt on my rind, along with the fennel seeds called for in the recipe. Lastly, if your pork is not as crispy in the middle as it is on the edges, it is okay to leave it in the oven for longer, just turn down the temperature a little, and it is unlikely that the meat will dry out.There is a lotttttttttttt of fat in pork belly, it will keep the meat moist.

And, of course, enjoy every moment of eating that pork. I am not often happier than I am when eating freshly roasted pork crackling, as silly as it sounds. I love it!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and enjoy bringing in 2014! Thanks very much for reading whiskitforabiscuit’s adventures this year 🙂 See you next year. Happy Baking!