Cracking crackling and pleasant pheasant

I love this time of year - it's all about seasonal comfort food. Hot soup, bread, cheese, red wine and cosy evenings sitting in the kitchen because it's the warmest room in the home...because the cooker is on all the time. If I had an Aga it would all be perfect.


However, I seem to be doing ok without an Aga for the time being. This weekend has been a bit full on with work so I thought it would be fun to try a meal which needs little effort but delivers great results. 


I've never tried slow roast pork belly before but think the idea of soft oozy pork meat with crisp crackling would be the perfect cold Autumn evening meal. 


I adapted a Jamie Oliver recipe to create Crisp Pork Belly with Apple Gravy.

1.5kg pork belly (ask your butcher to score it!)
Salt and pepper
2 red onions, halved
2 carrots, peeled and halved lengthways
2 sticks of celery, chopped in half
2 apples, peeled, cored and chopped in half
2 large cloves of garlic, skin on,
Fresh thyme
500ml vegetable stock
100ml dry cider


Pre-heat your oven as hot as you can then rub salt and pepper into the skin side of the belly. Make sure you get the salt into the scores as well. Place it on a roasting tray skin side up then pop it in the oven for approx. 30 mins or until the skin is covered in bubbles, starting to turn into crackling. Then turn the temperature down to 180c for an hour.
In the mean time prepare the vegetables, herbs, garlic and apples.
After an hour, take the belly out and baste it with the fat from the tray. Add your vegetables to the roasting tray and mix them around in the juices until coated. Then place your pork on top of the vegetables and put back in the oven for another hour.
When it's ready, take your pork out to rest while you make gravy out of the vegetables. Add your stock and cider to the tray and with a potato masher mash up the vegetables to get all their flavours. Heat your tray on the stove to boil it all up and let the stock and cider condense. Strain the liquid through a sieve to get lovely gravy flavoured with apple to go with your roast pork belly. Some folk like it with mashed potatoes, others with roast - it's all up to you. Make sure you serve with some seasonal vegetables though.


I picked up some pheasant at the farmers market last weekend so tonight we are trying pheasant breast braised in cider...


And no weekend would be complete without some soup being made so today I made Spinach, Broccoli and Stilton soup. Very warming and very comforting.