Last week, I came home from work just early enough to catch the tail end of an episode of the Great British Food Revival on BBC2. It was the pork episode and I watched Clarissa Dickson Wright drone on rather soothingly about various rare breed pigs and how tasty they are (I can confirm they are!). One recipe she made was a slow roasted pork belly with anchovies and chestnuts that looked mighty appealing and I went onto the BBC food website to get the accompanying recipe. The recipe listed online was clearly missing a step or two and quantities seemed a bit off; still, I thought perhaps they know what they’re talking about. Well, they didn’t and I had to throw some more beer and water into the bottom of the pan to prevent all the goodies at the bottom from burning. This recipe just confirms that we all need to go with our own knowledge and intuition when it comes to cooking.
Anyway, I suppose it was the curiosity about whether chestnuts and anchovies go together that piqued my interest with this recipe. Surprisingly, they did – the sweetness of the chestnuts mixing with the saltiness of the anchovies and really, one can never go wrong with a slow roasted pork belly. While my pork wasn’t from a rare breed pig this time, I did get it from the farmers’ market and it was loaded with flavour. We served it with kale and celeriac puree, the latter recommended by the television show. I’d never cooked with celeriac before and while it’s not perhaps a puree I’d serve with just any old roast, its celery sweetness complemented the savoury sauce created here.
Slow Roasted Pork Belly with Anchovies and Chestnuts
adapted from that on the BBC Food website.
serves 4.
A good slab of pork belly, skin scored (I think mine was about 1kg but you can definitely use a larger slab; I’ve used up to 1.5kg in the past)
3 tbsps olive oil
1 tin anchovies in olive oil
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
200g precooked chestnuts (mine were vacuum packed)
freshly ground black pepper
400mL dark beer
1 tsp salt
50mL brandy
Preheat your oven to 230 Celsius.
Take a roasting pan that can be used on the stovetop and heat it over medium heat. Add the olive oil and the oil from the anchovy tin. When hot, add your chopped onion and fry for about 5 minutes. Chuck in the garlic and fry for another minute. Roughly chop your chestnuts (or not…I quite liked them whole if small) and the anchovies and stir those through. Season well with lots of black pepper and pour over the beer. Stir and take off the heat.
Dry your slab of pork belly thoroughly, especially its skin. Rub the salt into the skin, getting it into the scored skin. Place it on top of the mixture in the roasting tin, ensuring that the skin doesn’t get wet.
Place the roasting tin into the preheated oven. After 20 minutes, turn the temperature down to 160 Celsius. Roast for 3 hours. Check it every once in a while to ensure that the stuff at the bottom of the tin hasn’t dried up (and burnt!) and if it’s looking a bit dry, chuck in some water, making sure not to get your pork skin wet.
At the end of the time, check your crackling. If it’s not crackly enough, place your pork (in the tin) under a hot grill and watch it closely. Mine took about 15 minutes under the grill this time but yours might be faster. Crackling!
Let the pork rest for about 10 minutes before slicing and serving with the chestnut and anchovy sauce.
Sat, 26 Mar, 2011 at 22:05
Sounds and looks delicious, its like braised pork with crackling, best of both worlds:)
Sat, 26 Mar, 2011 at 22:07
This looks delicious, belly pork is the best bit of the pig, mainly because you get the best crackling!
Clarissa’s looked a bit burnt actually but yours looks like it should, so she could have taken a tip fro you 😉
Sat, 26 Mar, 2011 at 23:08
Awesome! I’m actually making some roast pork today!
Sun, 27 Mar, 2011 at 09:25
Wow this looks so good, am going to ginger pig this morning to get some pork belly to try!
Sun, 27 Mar, 2011 at 11:40
She does drone on rather well doesn’t she. Albeit I can only cope with 30 minutes of it. Love the idea of chestnuts and anchovies. And your photo is extremely appetising.
Sun, 27 Mar, 2011 at 17:13
unlikely combination, that, not tried it, but i’ll take your word for it!
Sun, 27 Mar, 2011 at 21:23
Whoooaa that crackling looks amazing! What a beautiful dish.
Mon, 28 Mar, 2011 at 12:28
wooh look at that crackling! I like the flavours you have used too.
Tue, 29 Mar, 2011 at 12:05
It’s an unlikely-sounding combo of flavours, isn’t it? Good to hear that it really does work, though! Might give it a whirl myself.
Tue, 29 Mar, 2011 at 12:13
What a beautiful dish! That flavor combination is so mouthwatering and the crackling looks mighty scrumptious.
Cheers,
Rosa
Tue, 29 Mar, 2011 at 13:07
Three-Cookies: Yup – super tender with crunchy crackling.
deepa: Aw, you’re too sweet! But yeah, pork belly has a most excellent ratio of crackling to meat. Ours was remarkably lean too.
Ivan: Saw yours – looked bloody fantastic too!
paul: Did it work out for you?
Jonathan: Luckily, she only had half of the one hour show! I missed what was on the first half. Thank you!
johanna: I had to make it to believe it!
Hanna: Thank you!
vintagemacaroon: I had no idea whether they’d work together and just that curiosity had me cooking it!
aforkfulofspaghetti: Did you watch the programme too? I couldn’t get pork belly out of my head that whole week!
Rosa: Thank you!
Wed, 30 Mar, 2011 at 16:25
Yeaah! true enough, when cooking follow your intuition and knowledge of course. Anyway, that recipe seems to be so delicious…wanna try this.
Wed, 30 Mar, 2011 at 18:24
Su-lin – it was excellent thank you, it’s a great recipe!
Fri, 1 Apr, 2011 at 02:02
Looks AMAZING! I came to your site from Kat’s website and I’m happy to see all these beautiful pictures of food… I’ll stay here browsing for a while. 😉
Fri, 1 Apr, 2011 at 11:18
Ooooh this looks great! I love anchovies, and have never thought of pairing it with pork. Plus I have a pack of chestnuts in the fridge 🙂
Fri, 1 Apr, 2011 at 18:55
tricia: Yup, I’ve learned my lesson!
paul: Hurrah!
Nami: 😀 Thank you for dropping by!
breadetbutter: Yup, you probably already have everything you need!
Sun, 3 Apr, 2011 at 21:03
I found that episode so irritating! All that stuff about the delicious British Lop and then when I googled I discovered that it is pretty much impossible to buy unless you know someone! I would LOVE to eat rare breed pork but I don’t trust it when a supplier just says “rare breed”. I want to know what type it is, how it has been reared etc.
Your pork belly does look gorgeous though.
Sat, 19 Nov, 2011 at 20:03
I saw this dish done by Clarissa last night on tv and like you, I dashed out this morning to source a rare pork belly as am excited to try the anchovy and chestnut mix. Thank you for the helpful tips and adapted receipe. I am cooking it tomorrow for Sunday lunch.
Tue, 28 Jan, 2014 at 11:27
Yes! Finally ѕomething about carbohydrates.