Slow Roast Pork Belly with Caramelized Red Onion Chutney

Slow Roast Pork Belly With Caramelized Red Onion Chutney

Ingredients:

1kg of Pork Belly

150g Brown Sugar

1 litre of boiling water

170g Sea Salt

2 teaspoons of black pepper corns

2 cloves

1 bay leaf

Sprig of fresh time

A jar of caramelized red onion chutney (I do have a recipe but that's for another time)

The Cooking:

The day before you want to eat this dish, make a brine by combining the sugar, salt, pepper corns, cloves, bay leaf and thyme with the boiling water in a saucepan. Cook on a high heat, stirring until all the sugar and salt has dissolved, then put to one side to cool for about an hour. Once cooled, put your meat into a tray big enough to accommodate it, along with and all the brine, without over flowing. You will notice that the meat has a tendancy to float, so best weight it down with an upturned bowl, then seal in place by covering in cling film. Put it in a fridge for 24 hours.

The salt in the solution will act by rendering down the fat in the pork so you are left with an aptly meaty roast, with beautiful crackling and crispy bits.

After its had 24 hours of sitting in the fridge, pre-heat an oven to 150 degrees. Drain off the brine, give the meat a swill under a cold tap and dab dry with a cloth, then put the meat uncovered into a roasting tin and roast for 4 hours.

Serve up with mash, shredded greens and carrots and a big dolop of caramelized red onion chutney. lovely with a ruby red real ale.