Mint and Spiced Pork belly
Someone is dispatched to fetch it, the day is saved. But who would blame Dangereux if he had wanted to keep the famously minty wine (4½ Stars in this month’s Buying Guide) for himself? “I absolutely loved it,” he confirms. “I couldn’t believe it was a 2006. The tannins are so soft that if I’d tasted it blind, I would’ve said it was at least a year older. It’s a serious wine, and for a serious wine you need serious food.”
Dangereux explains how he came up with his match. “It was a cold night when I tasted it. There was a fire roaring in the fireplace. And I was eating eisbein, which wasn’t a perfect match but good enough to make me realise that this wine works with pig.”
He says he would have loved to devise a recipe using trotters. “Cabernet really works well to wash away the stickiness you get from trotters, but I didn’t think readers would venture into cooking them, and I really want people to make this dish because it’s easy and it’s good.”
Dangereux mentions that he didn’t pick up much mint character on the wine. “It’s a personal thing,” he reckons. “But when I put a crushed mint leaf in my mouth and washed it down with the wine, it worked beautifully.” Hence the minted mash to go with his slow-roasted spiced pork belly served with peas and a star anise and balsamic jus. His own verdict? “Mmmm, we’ve got to put this on the menu!”
Slow-roasted spiced pork
belly, served on minted
mash with peas and a star
anise and balsamic jus-Serves 8
2kg pork belly
2 T five-spice
Salt and pepper
2 large onions, peeled and quartered
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into thick slices
6 garlic cloves, peeled
180ml balsamic vinegar
250ml water
5 star anise
2 cups peas
6 T coarsely chopped fresh mint
Enough piping hot homemade mash for eight people
50g butter
If you buy a pork belly from a supermarket, it has
usually already been trimmed and tied. Buy a large roast
for eight people or two smaller ones for four. Roll off the
elastics without breaking them, and keep for replacing
later. Re-open the belly skin side up. If it hasn’t already
been done, slash through the skin in shallow cuts along
the full length of the belly so that it is
ready to carve when it’s cooked.
Then flip the meat over (skin side on the board) and cut the belly horizontally to butterfly it so you can open it like a book. Your friendly butcher can also do this for you…
Season the belly with salt, pepper and five-spice. Roll tightly from the skinless side, and roll the elastics back on (if your elastics fail, use string). Place in a large roasting pan with the onion, carrots, garlic, star anise, vinegar and water. Cover the pan with foil and make sure it is sealed on the edges so that steam does not escape during the initial cooking time.
Place in a pre-heated oven at 180ºC and cook for 1 hour. Remove the foil carefully, reduce the temperature to 160ºC and bake for another hour. Keep an eye on the level of the juice in the pan – there must always be about two fingers of liquid, so add a bit of water if necessary. Transfer the roast to a new baking tray without any juices or garnish and finish crisping it up in the oven.
Meanwhile, strain the cooking juice with a sieve into a pot and gently bring to the boil. Discard the star anise, then place the strained veggies into a food processor with the butter and work into a fine purée. Add this to the sauce (scooping the pork fat off the surface first, if you can). Whisk well, season with salt and pepper, and add a bit of dissolved corn flour if you feel the sauce is too runny. Set aside.
Cook the peas and keep warm, carve the roast
through the pre-sliced crackling, stir the fresh mint into
the hot mash, and serve. Bon appetit!
