This really is one of the simplest recipes, and it’s
a belter - particularly if you want to sup wine with any guests you might have
hanging around, rather than slave in the kitchen missing all the banter.
It’s
also an excellent choice if you fancy just bunging it in the oven, while you nip off to the gym or something, without worrying about the
house burning down in your absence.
It uses three of the things that go best with pork
- sage, onion and cider. Indeed, while we’re on the subject of sage, it’s also
probably quite a restorative dish if the Romans and others were right.
According to an old English custom, eating sage every day in May will
grant long life, immortality even (but who wants that), hence the proverb: “Why should a man die who has sage in
his garden?”
The sweetness of the onions is cut by the cider,
which you add towards the end, to make an amber liquor smacking of sage and black
pepper. When I made it last night, I bunged a couple of potatoes in the oven to
bake while the pork was slowly cooking. Then I served it with finely sliced
carrots, broad beans and peas.
You could thicken the sauce by making a roux with
butter and flour and then stirring the pork liquor in, but sometimes life’s too
short for that sort of thing, and besides the spuds are good for soaking up the
juice.
PORK
BELLY PARCEL WITH SAGE
(Serves
2-3)
1
small rolled pork belly joint, about 750g
2
small onions, sliced
20
sage leaves
Salt
and pepper
200ml
dry cider
Take a large piece of foil - about enough to cover
two chopping boards. Lay the sliced onions in the centre, to form a bed big
enough to rest the pork on. Tear up the sage leaves and scatter over the
onions.
Sprinkle the pork joint liberally with salt and
then nestle on top of the onions and sage. Season with black pepper - a good
few grinds of the pepper mill. Then tuck the foil sides inwards and fold up into
a parcel. Put in an oven tray, and into a pre-heated, low oven - about gas mark 4 or 160C.
After an hour and a half, take the pork out and
crank up the oven to maximum heat. Open the foil, to form a bowl shape that
will keep the juices in, and pour the cider over the pork. Season with more
salt and pepper, and put back in the oven for another 20 to 30 minutes until
the crackling is golden.
Take out of the oven and rest for 20 minutes
before cutting into thick slices and devouring.
