How To Make Slow Roasted Pork Belly | Gordon Ramsay

Take a very sharp knife, bring the pork belly towards you so you're over it and you've got all that pressure and weight. Using the tip of the knife I'm just sort of nicking it and go across the pork belly, long strokes with the knife. Take your time, turn it 180. This time what we're doing is just sort of cutting those nice little sort of diamonds but as that starts roasting on top it starts getting nice and crispy. Take your handfuls of salt and just sort of rub it in, bend it over and in all those cracks really helps to get a nice crisp crackling on top. Roasting tray, get it really nice and hot. Take a whole bulb of fennel to intensify flavour and to keep the meat succulent. I'm braising my pork belly with strong vibrant spices and vegetables. Crush and peel three whole cloves of garlic and add to the fennel. Olive oil in, fennel in. I like the nice strong aniseed flavour that goes with that nice rich dense pork fennel seeds. Delicious. Star anise in and just a couple of cardamom seeds and wow they're like little bangers, like little firecrackers. Incredible. Lovely. Fresh bay leaves. Get your pork skin side down, just sear the top of that fat. That locks in all that amazing flavour. Then I'm gonna flip it over and get it nice and crispy and then I want fennel seeds embedded in those little cracks. Now some white wine. The minute that white wine hits that pan you can just smell that light fragrance from the fennel. Allow the wine to bubble away and reduce until the alcohol has burnt off. Time to get the stock. Now the stock goes in just underneath the skin so it roasts on top. All that meat under there will be submerged because what happens in the oven, the top goes crispy as anything and the stock reduces and braises at the same time. Really importantly bring that back up to the boil before it goes in the oven otherwise it will never boil, never get up to temperature. Smells incredible. Slow roast the pork belly at 180 degrees for two and a half hours. Look at that. You've got that nice crispy skin on top. You can see how much of the stock has evaporated. Put that onto the board. It looks stunning. To make a delicious rustic sauce with the flavour packed contents of the roasting tray, first get rid of the excess fat. Take a couple of slices of bread. It's like a perfect sponge because you just lay that on top and drag it almost like a net and it just absorbs all that fat. If you want the perfect fried bread trust me, stick that in a frying pan. A nice teaspoon of mustard. Whisk that in and then simply simmer for a few minutes before pouring into a serving jug. With your pork belly always use a nice serrated edge knife. You can hear that. That is amazing. Incredibly tender. That belly of pork is going to almost melt in your mouth. You've got that sweet meat under that crispy belly of pork. What an amazing way to cook a very cheap cut of meat. Stir through chopped mint, pile onto toasted bread and finally for a lovely salty tang, crumble over some creamy feta cheese. Add the shin back into the pan with a glass of dry white wine and the juice of an orange.