Perfect crackling with Szechuan peppered pork belly and savoury plum jam

Posted by petra08 on June 18, 2013 · 2 Comments 

This is the second part of the wedding anniversary dinner for our friends. One of them is a little picky with food but pork got the thumbs up and one of my favourite things in the world is crispy pork crackling! I know it is so bad for you but when it is good! I don’t do it very often but as this was a special occasion I thought it would be good. When it was time for shopping I had made my mind up to cook the pork belly with a Szechuan pepper rub and serve with Chinese spiced plums.

Szechuan pepper spice rub

• Szechuan peppercorn
  
• seasalt
• star anise

Toast the spices and then grind them, rub the meat and let stand until you are ready to cook it.

Cook at 100C for 3 hours and then 225C for 30-40 minutes.

When that is cooking make the savoury plum jam from plums, star anise and cinnamon.

The pork belly is ready when you can hear the crackling crackle, it looks fluffy and light and when you tap the top it sounds airy, not dense at all. Sprinkle over salt and serve. I had some chipotle salt and the chilli kick that I used and it was delicious.

Crackling

I crisped up some sage leaves and some fresh, new bayleaves to go with the pork.

We ate it with roast halved potatoes and a tomato salad and it was quite a light dinner with lots of nice flavours together.

I did a pavlova for dessert, meringue with salted caramel cream with strawberry and blueberry with honey brought to a boil. It tasted lovely but it didn’t look too appealing (we ate it all) but I could not take a picture!

After that we lingered over cheese and more wine, making plans for the next dinner party!

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Filed under Allotment/Veg, Cheese, Dessert, Fruit, Herbs, Onion, Plum, Potatoes, Recipe, Starch, Tomatoes, Wine · Tagged with crackling, crispy sage leaves, mac&cheese arancini, perfect crackling, pork crackling, savoury plum jam, slow roast pork belly