Mel Alafaci is a chef, author, food writer and teacher.
She will be making her beer braised pork belly with crispy crackling.
She serves the pork with butterbean mash and veggie.
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Recipe below:
Pork Belly with perfect Crackling on Butterbean Purée
Perfect Crackling Every Time
WARNING: Every belly you take home is going to behave differently. Different fat contents in the belly (lean or fatty), different levels of dryness/moisture in the skin (cryovac sealed or dried overnight skin), your oven/ equipment and your cooking method all have a part to play. But DON’T PANIC; I’m about to reveal ALL.
BRAISING IS THE BEST COOKING METHOD FOR PORK BELLY WITH PERFECT CRACKLING
The meat is submerged in a tasty cooking liquid and the skin/rind is high and dry and exposed to extreme heat. The flavour AND colour of the cooking liquid will infuse into the meat and keep it perfectly tender and safe from drying out.
SCORING THE SKIN GIVES IT MORE SURFACE AREA SO MORE HEAT CAN POP OUT THE CRACKLING
Get your butcher to score the skin/rind to help that heat get right in there and help pop out that crackling. Most supermarket bellies are already scored. Of course, you can do it yourself, but don’t bother if your knife is blunt you WILL end up in tears!
COOK THE BELLY IN A ‘SWEAR-WORD’ HOT OVEN
Yes, swear word hot so that you know how hot I want this oven. It’s the ONLY way. You will not get a speeding fine if you go over 180C, which is the safe zone! Crank the oven up to its maximum temperature of 220/250C
MINIMUM COOK TIME OF 1H 15MIN
Pork belly with crackling is not a midweek meal that you decide to cook when you’ve been stuck in traffic for an hour, the kids are screaming with hunger, and food needs to be on the table in 10 minutes flat. I have recipes for that night, but this is not it. Belly needs some alone time in the oven for at least an hour and 15 minutes. This is fabulous if you are having a dinner party, which means you can clean the kitchen, set the table, and get yourself all cleaned up and glamorous while the OVEN DOES THE WORK. You might need to top up the cooking liquid once or twice, but that’s about it.
GIVE THAT BELLY A SUNTAN UNDER THE GRILL
In most cases, after an hour in the oven, the belly might not have popped its crackling. Do not start crying, drinking excessively or panicking; there are ways and means to get your way. Place the belly on the bottom shelf of your oven. It must be as far away from the grill as possible. Use a preheated grill. Stay close. Close the door. The extreme heat or ‘suntan’ from the direct heat of the grill will blast that fat out and give you the perfect crackling, but BEWARE...if you get distracted or if something happens on Facebook and you forget about the belly it will burn. Stay close and monitor the crackling; you will be surprised what that long-distance relationship with the grill can do to your belly. Once it’s all popped out, remove it from the oven and get ready to get that round of applause.
1.5-2 kg Pork belly
2-4 cups weak chicken or vegetable stock
(The amount required depends on the size of your roasting dish)
1 can beer or cider
1 tablespoon turmeric (this is the secret to the belly suntan!)
1 tablespoon cumin/curry/ras el hanout powder
2-star anise
1 cinnamon stick
2 onions, thickly sliced
2 pears or apples, thickly sliced
Salt to sprinkle the rind
METHOD
To prepare the belly, first ensure that you have dried the skin as much as possible using a paper towel or a tea towel. Score the skin of the belly and cut the belly into serving-sized portions.
Place pear/apples and onion in a roasting dish and put the pork on top – the intention is to ensure that the pork skin will stay dry while it is being cooked. Essentially, we are using the onions and the apples/pears as CULINARY HIGH HEELS.
Mix the stock, beer/cider and spices together in a jug and CAREFULLY pour into the roasting dish – making sure not to wet the skin of the pork. You want the liquid to come about halfway up the side of the pork. Pat the pork skin dry again and then dust liberally with salt and immediately place into a swear word hot oven (220 - 250C). Cook for at least 1 ¼ hrs., checking regularly to ensure the liquid doesn’t dry out. If the skin is not crackling, turn the grill on for 5 minutes at a time, place the belly on the bottom shelf, and then put it back in the oven, watching closely until that lovely skin pops out into perfect crackling - heaven.
TO SERVE
Turn the pork upside down to carve if needed – this makes cutting the crackling easier. But turn it back over quickly so it doesn’t go soggy. Serve the cooking liquid, pears and onions as part of the dish. Make sure you taste it first and adjust the seasoning if necessary. If the liquid has cooked down too much, simply add more water and heat through. There is no need to thicken. You can serve this as a broth or thicken to make a gravy; just take some of the fat off first! A paper towel on the surface is the easiest, or you can plunge ice cubes into the liquid, and the ice will solidify the fat, and you can scoop the fatty ice cubes off and discard them.
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