So I'm going to show you how to make the
perfect pork belly and it's a tough one - how do you get that incredible crackling
but then melt-in-your-mouth tender juicy gorgeous pork belly, right? A nice hunk of
that. Right, that's what I'm gonna give you. This is a beautiful, basic recipe
that works every single time and you're gonna love it. You're gonna get crackling,
you're gonna get meat, and you're gonna get massive smiles around the table. So guys
let's start with the pork. Go to your butchers - you want a free-range bit of
pork. Look for marbling, and this fat will mostly render out but the journey out
kisses, looks after, takes care of the meat. Why
am i doing a big chunk? Well leftovers from this are gonna be amazing.
Whether you freeze it, fridge it, use it within the week after, it's gonna be
amazing. Now I'm gonna show you how to score it. Now there's a little secret
weapon - stanley knife. So get a Stanley knife, change the blade - I don't want
your grubby old blade blade from doing your DIY - and what's good about
this, is the fact that this blade can go up and down and it clicks right, and we
know that we can click that down and that's going to go through the skin and
score and you're not going to get into that meat, which means that juiciness is
optimised. Okay I'm gonna go down the middle and I'm gonna score all the way
down. Take the skin and I'm just gonna score it maybe every centimetre. Almost
like herringbone. So that's one side done, but what you'll notice is as I open it up - can you see that kind of concertina out - heat can get in quicker, flavour can
get in more. This is gonna be amazing. Turn it around. So score it up around
here as well, and then I want to make a flavoured salt. It's a really exciting
part of cooking. We're gonna use lovely spices and herbs. First one is coriander
seeds, then fennel seeds, then black pepper, 2 tablespoons each, and 2
tablespoons of sea salt. Then 2 bay leaves. Pull out that little central
stalk here and bash it. Now is the time to use it. Rub it in all the little
crooks and crannies. Let it get in there. So I've added a
little bit of olive oil there and that little bit of oil helps the rendering,
but I want to brush off the seasoning from the skin now. Brush it off because
it's inside there, and let's get four lovely white onions, leave the skin on
and I'm gonna cut it into quarters. This is gonna roast
as a trivet under the pork and the skin stops the onions from scalding. So use
the onion to prop up the pork. You want it all to roughly be on the same plane
and then it's gonna go into the oven at full whack, which is roughly around 230
degrees Celsius or 250, which is about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. That takes about
40 minutes to an hour. Then I'll show you what to do next in the meantime. I am
gonna get soap and I'm gonna just clean this place down. It is gonna be spic and
span and that includes me. The pork is looking amazing and as that crackling's
just getting perfect I want to clank up a load of veg. We've got lovely
potatoes, leave the skin on. Chunk them up into like inch chunks. In it goes and
then we'll do exactly the same with the fennel and the carrots. Got some celery
here as well. Take some herbs like rosemary. A whole bulb of garlic, leave
the skin on, just literally break it up. So season it with salt and pepper then
give it a really good mixing. But there's no oil here, because what we're gonna do is
take the pork out of the oven, look at that! Come on!
We have crackling but now we have to change attitude towards the cooking
because high heat gives you crackle but it's gonna make this meat underneath
tough. So now we're gonna go to the oven and we're going to turn it down to 150
degrees Celsius, which is about 300 Fahrenheit. Okay so we've gone from high
to low cooking, this is the genius. What we have underneath - listen to that
crackling - so what we have here ladies and gents, is the potential for the most
amazing homemade gravy. People are gonna go nuts for this. We have already got
guaranteed crunchy crackling, right, so I want to guarantee you tenderness. So
we're gonna do that by another brilliant technique that I love. So I'm going to
take this pork put it straight onto the bars. Put it back sort of towards the top of
the oven. The veg goes underneath and literally
that fat, as it melts off the pork belly, is gonna rain over all those beautiful
veggies. It's gonna be incredible. Cook it for about three to four hours at 150 degrees Celsius which is about 300 Fahrenheit, and you'll know when it's
cooked when that meat just pulls apart and it's beautiful. We are at the end of
the story. The best bit right when everything comes out. We have an amazing
gravy, it smells so good in here. This recipe is rock-solid. It's gonna
look after you and what's nice is as that pork cooked and rained fat onto
these incredible veggies, I just mixed it up every now and again, like every hour.
Look at that! Just amazing. Wow. Incredible crackling. Outrageous. Oh my lord!
Come on, right, enough talking, let's get in to the pork! and look at that! Come on
man - just incredible. Tender, juicy. If I squeeze it just juice galore. Really
amazing. You have got these ribs here and look how much meat will come off these.
Just absolutely beautiful. Look at that! Just absolutely beautiful. Oh right I'm
peaking too soon, Time to plate up a portion. So caramelised and delicious.
Come on! Yes, you know it makes sense let's try that. So good. The flavour of the pork is amazing.
Tender as you like. Crunch! Mmm. The veg is so tasty. So guys - please don't just watch this and do nothing. Go shopping tomorrow, go buy some
pork belly, click the link get the recipe. Take care.
