Roast belly pork with apple, sour cherry and fennel chutney

I cut this recipe out from a magazine years ago (yes I’ve apparently been a food nerd for some time now), I made it the other day and it’s so delicious I felt the need to share. I know I know belly pork has become really over exposed in the last few years but it’s still one of my all time favourite cuts. When you cook it slowly you end up with beautifully sticky caramelised meat that falls apart topped with lovely crunchy crackling. Without trying to sound too preachy I will say that if you can’t or won’t buy free range pork at least make it British. You can then be sure the pigs aren’t kept in the inhumane sow pens used widely across Europe. Okay speech over here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

For the pork

2 x 750g pieces pork belly, skin scored

4 star anise

2tbsp fennel seeds

2tbsp paprika

3 dried bay leaves

3tbsp sea salt

For the chutney

40g sour cherries

40ml apple juice

500g Cox’s apples peeled, cored and roughly chopped

1 fennel bulb, finely sliced

1 red onion, sliced

50g fresh ginger, grated

1 red chilli, chopped

1tsp fennel seeds

1tsp coriander seeds

2 star anise

125g demerara sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5. Place the spices and salt for the meat into a blender, blitz until fairly fine and rub over the meat. 

Place all the chutney ingredients in a roasting tray, cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Once the time is up, remove the foil and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes. The chutney should become glossy and syrupy. Place to one side and leave to cool. 

Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C/gas mark 3.  Drizzle the skin with a little olive oil making sure to rub it into the scores. Place the pork belly, skin-side up on a rack in a roasting tin. Pour 100ml of water and 100ml of apple into the tin and cook for 3 hours. You can test if the pork is cooked by pushing a fork into the flesh, it should break away easily. 

Once cooked, crank the oven temperature up to 220°C/gas mark 7 and cook the pork for a further 15-20 minutes to crisp up the crackling. If the crackling is being stubborn place it under a hot grill to finish it off. Make sure to keep an eye on it though as it can easily burn.

Once cooked, carve the pork and serve it with the chutney and vegetables of your choice.

Enjoy! x

Sweets for my sweet

Happy (slightly belated) Birthday to Miss Shara! As tradition dictates I baked up a storm in place of a birthday present. I probably should go out and buy a proper gift but I think instead I’ll just continue to work under the assumption that she enjoys receiving massive bags full of cake!

So this year I baked raspberry and white chocolate blondies and milk chocolate peanut butter cookies.

White Chocolate and Raspberry Blondies

For the Blondies I used a recipe by Picky Palate and oh it was delicious! I have to say that I’m normally not the biggest blondie fan (except Debbie Harry of course, she’s ace) as more often than not they’re too sweet and too dry. The addition of raspberries in these blondies however cuts through the sweetness and helps keep them moist. 

Ingredients

60g unsalted butter
180g white chocolate, chopped
110g caster sugar
50g brown sugar
115g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
120g white chocolate, chopped
2 eggs
2 tablespoons sour cream
170g fresh raspberries
2 tablespoons Demerara sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4 and grease and line the inside of an 8x8 tin.

Melt the butter and 180g of white chocolate together in a heat proof bowl placed over barely simmering water, once melted place to one side.

Briefly mix the flour, baking powder, sugars, salt and remaining 120g white chocolate together with a fork. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and sour cream until well mixed. Add this mixture and the butter/white chocolate to the dry ingredients, mix until just combined.

Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

I used an Alice Medrich recipe as a base for these cookies from her wonderful book ‘Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy’. 

Ingredients 

170g plain flour

½ teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon flaky sea salt

100g unsalted butter, softened

50g dark brown sugar

60g granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

300g chunky peanut butter

150g milk chocolate, chopped into large chunks

4tbsp milk

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C/gas mark 3 

Place flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl and mix briefly with a fork. 

In a large bowl or electric mixer combine butter with sugars until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla extract, peanut butter and milk chocolate chunks and mix well until blended. Add the flour and stir until just combined. The mixture at this point will be short and crumbly. Stir slowly the mixture very slowly adding the milk a little at a time until the dough comes together. 

Roll mixture into walnut size balls and squish down with a fork. Make sure to leave about 2 inches between the cookies otherwise they’ll all meld together. 

Bake for around 15 minutes until the cookies are lightly golden. Don’t worry if they’re a little soft they will harden once out the oven. Leave to cool on the tray for 5 minutes before using a spatula to transfer them to a wire cooling rack. 

Enjoy! x

What I’ve been up to

I haven’t been able to write a great deal lately as the lovely Babe Ruth managed to find me some temp work for a couple of weeks, thanks Baaaaabe! I’ve still been cooking and baking (contrary to popular belief, a girls GOT to eat) I just haven’t had the time to write it all down. So here’s a brief summary... (Please excuse all the phone pictures)

I made some coconut ice cream with mango sauce 

The delightful Carys went and had a birthday so a big ol’ meal was cooked in her honour

A salted caramel chocolate tart in place of a birthday cake? But of course! Did I eat more of this tart than is entirely necessary? No.... By no I mean yes. Yes in a big way. 

I made home-made crumpets.  If you’re anything like me (or Vicki for that matter) you’ll be thinking ‘home-made crumpets? You can’t make crumpets, you buy crumpets. Fool!’ I’ll be honest they were fairly stressful but that was more me being impatient and trying to flip them too early than the crumpets themselves. Not the food, never blame the food. 

I made some French toast with bacon, syrup and berries

And mushroom burgers. She may not be pretty but phwoar...

I’ve also eaten near to my body weight in grilled sweet corn

I even found a place where you can buy prawns by the shovelful??!!

I’ve also been clearing out and decorating my room which has lead to some fairly amusing finds...

Apparently the Brownies didn’t really rate my cooking

I appear to have shown an early *ahem* artistic streak

Oh and this happened. Getting locked in a bathroom is never particularly fun for a claustrophobic.

So that's pretty much what I've been up to lately. I have plenty of free time on my hands again now so recipes will start reappearing shortly!