Pork belly ribs with plum sauce and root vegetables

I first had roast pork belly at the Boxwood cafe in Knightsbridge (Gordon Ramsay's restaurant, now closed) quite a few years ago. Although the sound of it and indeed the look of it with all that fat would put any health conscious person off, it is such a treat for children. Cooking it slowly makes the meat juicy, very tender and full of flavour. Easily chewed down by little teeth. It was the first time I cooked it today but it seemed to go down well. I served it with a plum sauce and baked root vegetables; parsnips, onions, cauliflower, hazelnuts. I meant to add the remaining plums from the plum sauce but somebody had eaten them...

I bought the pork belly with ribs as my original recipe called for it and I wasn't experienced enough to question it but the guys at my local butcher, The Parson's Nose, helped me out. They are used to an international crowd arriving with requests for weird cuts of meet and always try to accommodate their customers. 

Roast Pork Belly (with or without ribs). Ask your butcher to score the crackling for you. 

Ingredients

1 kg for 4 persons ( I cooked 1,5 kgs with ribs but there is some left)

2 tbsp soy sauce

olive oil

1 tbsp fennel seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

salt and pepper

Preparation

Pre-heat the oven to 240ºC grill

Grind the fennel and coriander seeds in a pestle and mortar. Rub the pork belly with soy sauce, olive oil then sprinkle the skin with the seeds, leaving about 1tsp for the plum sauce. Season with salt and pepper. Place skin-side up in an oven-proof dish and leave to cook for 30 minutes. Then lower heat to 160º, pour 2,5 dl of water in the dish and leave for about 1,5 hours. Add more water if it dries up. When it is cooked you can wrap it in aluminium foil but keep it open on top not to soften the crackling. 

Plum sauce

6 plums

1 thumb size fresh ginger

2 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp of fennel and coriander seeds (as mentioned above)

4 tbsp red wine vinegar

8 tbsp brown sugar

olive oil

6 tbsp water

Preparation

Chop the plums in small pieces, remove the stones. Peal and grate the ginger, squeeze the juice out of it and discard the fibrous left-overs. Heat some oil in a pan and add the plums, ginger juice, cinnamon sticks, fennel and coriander seeds, vinegar, sugar and water. Cook until it is as thick as syrup. 

Vegetables (original recipe, changed a bit by me, can be found here Lotta Lundgren)

half a small head of cauliflower

4 medium sized parsnips

2 red onions

4 plums

2 handfuls of hazelnuts 

salt and pepper

olive oil

agave or maple syrup

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Separate the cauliflower into small florets, peel and cut the parsnips into 2 cm chunks, peel and cut the onions into 4 wedges, de-stone the plums and cut in half. Place in a baking tray, pour over olive oil and syrup then season with salt and pepper. Place in the oven and leave for 30 mins. When there is about 5 mins left of the cooking time add the hazelnuts. The cauliflower goes a bit brown but it is supposed to happen. 

Timing wise I cooked the pork earlier in the day and left it out wrapped in aluminium foil while I did the rest. It was still nice and warm when we ate it. It might sound complicated but is a very forgiving piece of meet to cook.