Pork And Crackling Food

PERFECT ROAST PORK CRACKLING

Steps:

• Score pork skin, best to have your butcher do this.
• Place pork in colander and pour boiling water over to open the skin. Dry thoroughly and then place in fridge for 1-2 hours.
• Remove from fridge and rub with salt -- Then mix ground fennel seeds with olive oil and rub all over pork and into slits.
• The flavour is magnificent. Use your own judgement on cooking times, but a general suggestion is around 50 minutes per kilogram in a moderate to hot oven.

DANISH PORK WITH CRACKLING

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 450°F Dry pork roast as much as possible with a paper towel.
• Using a sharp knife, cut halfway through the fat layer (but not the meat) in horizontal lines 1/2" apart. Then make vertical lines 1/2" apart, making a cross-hatch pattern.
• In a small bowl, combine the salt, cloves, mustard seeds, and crumbled bay leaves. Rub the mixture into the pork roast, making sure to work it into the fat layer.
• Place in a deep roasting pan and roast for about 30 minutes or until top is crackling and golden brown. Reduce heat to 350°F and carefully pour the water into the pan.
• Cook another hour, or until meat reaches 160°F.
• Remove crackling from roast, cut roast into slices, and serve crackling with the roast.

PORK BELLY CRACKLING

Steps:

• Combine brown sugar, chili powder, salt, allspice, fennel seed and pepper in a bowl.
• Score pork belly all over with a sharp knife, making a crisscross of lines 1/2 inch apart. (Do not cut past fat.)
• Carefully work the rub into both skin and meat sides and allow to cure 8 hours or up to 2 days in the fridge.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Cut pork belly into 3 equal pieces and place in a hotel pan or roasting tray. Cover with Veal Stock and add red wine, celery, carrot and onion. Cover with foil and bake until a knife inserts easily, about 3 1/2 hours. Allow pork belly to sit in the stock for 30 minutes to reabsorb juices. Remove to a clean tray with two metal spatulas. Cool to 70 degrees within 2 hours and 40 degrees within 4 hours.
• Bring oil to 350 degrees F in a deep-fryer. Cut pork into 1/2- to 3/4-inch cubes. Fry until crispy, 4 to 5 minutes.
• Toss in Star Anise Red Wine Reduction, then season with salt and pepper. Serve with extra Star Anise Red Wine Reduction on the side.
• Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
• Combine bones, celery, carrots, onions and tomato paste in a roasting tray and roast, stirring twice to ensure aromatic vegetables and bones, until dark brown in color, about 1 hour.
• Transfer bones and vegetables to a very large stockpot. Place roasting tray on stove top over medium-high heat, add red wine to the tray and cook, scraping drippings from the bottom until completely dislodged. Pour the contents into the stockpot and cover with 20 quarts cold water.
• Place stockpot over low heat, add bay leaves and peppercorns and simmer for 24 hours, skimming the top regularly to remove impurities.
• Strain stock through a fine-mesh strainer or cheesecloth. Cool to 70 degrees within 2 hours and 40 degrees within 4 hours.
• Add brown sugar, vinegar, star anise, orange zest and juice, cinnamon sticks and 3 cups water to a medium saucepot over medium heat. Simmer sauce until reduced by a third to a half, for 2 to 3 hours.
• Cool and set aside.

PORK CRACKLINGS

Steps:

• Pulse kosher salt and fennel in grinder until fennel is coarsely ground. Arrange fatback, skin side up, on a work surface with longest side nearest you. Score pork skin (1/4 inch deep) crosswise with a sharp knife at 1/3-inch intervals (do not cut through to fat). Pat skin completely dry with paper towels, then rub fennel salt into skin. Let stand, loosely covered, at room temperature 1 hour.
• Put oven rack in bottom third of oven and preheat oven to 450°F.
• Pat skin completely dry with paper towels again, then cut skin into strips using scored cuts as a guide. Arrange strips close together in a large shallow baking pan (1 inch deep) and slowly pour water into pan (not over skin). Roast, stirring twice (use caution, as fat may splatter), until strips are golden, blistered, and crisp, 30 to 35 minutes. Transfer with a slotted spoon to a paper-towel-lined plate to drain, then discard fat remaining in pan.

SPICED PORK CRACKLING STRAWS

Steps:

• Preferably in a spice grinder (but if you don't have one, in a pestle and mortar) grind 1 tsp of the fennel seeds with the peppercorns, star anise and salt as finely as you can then stir through the paprika and whole fennel seeds and set aside.
• Using a craft knife (also known as a tiling knife or a Stanley knife) and a ruler to cut against, carefully cut the pork skin into thin strips that are about 1cm wide. Tip the strips into a bowl or dish and coat well in the spice seasoning, tossing and rubbing the seasoning into the pork with your hands until it's all well coated. Cover and set the pork aside for at least an hour (or for up to 2 days in the fridge). The longer you leave it, the more the spices will permeate the pork.
• To cook, heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and get two similar sized large, shallow, sturdy baking trays - Swiss roll trays are ideal. Line the base to one of the trays with parchment paper and lay the pork skin over as evenly as possible. Ideally, you don't want the strips to touch too much, but if there is a bit of contact that's fine. Lay another sheet of parchment paper over the skin and top with the 2nd tray, then place a heavy oven-proof dish like a casserole on top to weigh the top tray down.
• Place everything in the middle of the oven for 40 mins, then carefully remove. Lift off the top tray and layer of paper and, using a fish slice or tongs, turn the straws and separate any that are touching and starting to stick together, then carefully pour off any fat. Place the paper and the weighted tray back on top and continue to cook for another 20 mins. Check again - what you are looking for are uniformly blistered, rusty coloured, snapable strips of pork skin. If they need longer, place them back in the oven covered with the weighed tray for another 10 mins and continue until they get there. The time very much depends on the quality of the pork - very good quality pork will take half the time it takes lesser quality pork to crisp-up.
• When the straws are ready, drain them on kitchen paper then leave to cool. They will now keep in an airtight container for up to 2 days. Just before serving either sprinkle with a little more salt or dust them generously with icing sugar, or spilt them in two and do one to each half.

ROAST PORK WITH CRACKLING

Steps:

• If you have time, rub salt in the pork skin 2 hours before cooking and leave it uncovered in the fridge. Heat the oven to 230C/210C fan/gas 8. Turn the pork rind-side down and with a small knife make about 6 deep incisions along the meat. Poke a sliver of garlic, a piece of rosemary and bay in each incision and turn the pork the right way up. If you didn't salt the pork earlier salt the skin now.
• Mix the carrot, onion and apple and scatter along the middle of a shallow roasting tray to make a bed for the pork to sit on. Sit the pork on the vegetables and rub the skin with the oil. Place the pork in the oven and leave for 15 mins then turn the heat down to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and continue to roast for 1hr 30 mins. If after this time you don't have brilliant crackling turn the heat up again and check every 5 mins until the skin has crackled.
• Remove the pork from the roasting tray to a board to rest and pour off all but about 2 tbsp of fat from the tray. If your tray is robust enough to go on the heat then do so, if not scrape the contents into a shallow saucepan and place on the heat. Stir the flour in with the veg and cook until you have a mushy, dark amber paste then splash in the cider and bubble down to a thick paste again. Pour in the stock and simmer everything for 8-10 mins until you have thickened gravy. Strain the sauce into another saucepan pushing as much puréed apple as you can through the sieve. Simmer again and season to taste.
• Carve the pork loin with crackling attached into slices using a serrated knife and serve with your favourite vegetables and the apple and cider gravy.