Roast pork belly, loosely based on a Gordon Ramsay recipe.
This started with scoring the pork belly rind, into diamond patterns and rubbing sea salt (and, in my case, I also added brown sugar) into the crevices.
In a roasting dish - Gordon had called for a bulb of fennel which I forgot to buy yesterday - so, for vegetables, I used roughly chopped carrot, celery, onion, (the classic soffritto), plus parsnip, (I am a northern European, that is a root vegetable - and root vegetables go well with pork - and it is still winter), I sautéed vegetables, and later, fruit, and spices.
Unlike Gordon, I thought that fruit - a large cooking apple and a large conference pear - both sliced and peeled - would work well with pork. And a tin of apricots, their juice added later to the stock - I decided to forego citrus.
The vegetables (and fruit) were sautéed in olive oil in a large roasting tin; spices - several (around seven for me, whereas Gordon had mentioned a mere three) bashed (and peeled) cloves of garlic were added, as were several star anise, bashed cardamon seeds, and a fistful of caraway seeds. (To my surprise, my well stocked spice cupboard did not have the fennel seeds that Gordon suggested).
The inevitable sea salt and black pepper; the pork was seared on both sides; then a large glass of white wine was added, the alcohol allowed to burn off, after which I added the liquid from the tin of apricots, and some stock.
Next, into a preheated oven at 180C (360F) for two and a half hours.
Now, debating whether to have potatoes - sautéed, or roasted, to accompany.
