but I've never cooked it. I've looked up many recipes, walked past slabs of the stuff most days down Victoria St and had always intended to try it, but, well, they're very big, those slabs. I was waiting for the right recipe and number of willing participants. (actually, I'm terrified of roasting- how English to stick a big slab of meat in the oven for hours. what if it dries out and you're chewing on something like a handbag?) fortunately, JG knows how to roast things rather well and isn't put off by such concerns, so he cooked a piece just for the two of us.
it was great. crispy, crunchy, salty crackling and succulent meat separated by layers of soft, melting fat. the cooking method too, was genius. JG looked to his culinary hero Hugh Fearnley-Wittingstall for the answer to the dryness problem: skin side up; meat part submerged in wine and stock with a bit of onion, carrot and thyme thrown in. the meat cooks slowly in the stock and rendering fat, and the skin crisps up above in the dry heat. like I said, genius.
and despite the fact that it shrank considerably it was still quite large (but we ate it all anyway. half for dinner with all sorts of healthy accompaniments, and half cold when we came back from the pub later that night... this is the danger of the lingering pork belly...)
preheat the oven to 200°c.
make several deep scores in the skin through to the fat, and rub the skin with salt. stuff thyme or sage into the cuts.
scatter onion slices, a chopped carrot and a few thyme sprigs in the bottom of a roasting pan and sit the meat on top, skin side up.
pour stock and white wine into the pan until most of the muscle is covered, leaving the skin and fat layers exposed. bake for about 1 hour, depending on the size of the cut.
when the meat is cooked and the skin crisp, rest for 10 minutes before cutting. I prefer the cubed chunk rather than the thin slice. if you're going to eat it you may as well experience all that fatty goodness in mouthfuls, and do away with the pretense of delicate slices.
