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Who doesn't love pork belly? Chicharones de Cadiz



This recipe is probably not high up in the British heart foundation's heart friendly cooking but who cares?

We all love pork belly and this is a great tapas style version of it than can just be picked at with your fingers. It also has the distinct advantage that you can do most of the cooking ahead of time and just fry them off at the last minute.

I made this for us to have at a Morito sunday lunch (bank holiday Monday really)and we all really loved it.

Be really generous with the lemon juice and cumin at the end it adds flavour and provides a great contrast to the fatty crispy pork.

the basic recipe for the belly is the same as a jamie oliver one that I have blogged about before but I thought that the idea of putting it on an onion to create the convex shape is a really good idea

Ingredients

2 garlic cloves, crushed to a paste with a teaspoon of salt
1 tbs ground fennel seeds
1kg piece pork belly skin scored
1/2 medium onion peeled
Lemon cut into wedges to serve

To finish

Juice of 2 lemons
3 tsp cumin seeds, lightly toasted and roughly ground

Method

Preheat oven to 230c.
Mix the garlic and fennel seeds and rub it all over the flesh side of the pork belly.
Turn the meat over and dry the skin thoroughly ( they say use a hair dryer!) generously sprinkle the skin with salt and leave for 20 minutes, then dust off excess.

Place the onion half in a roasting pan and put the pork on top to make a convex shape which will help the crackling to form. Place on the top shelf of the oven. It is important that the oven is really hot to start off with to help the skin to blister and the crackling to form.
Roast at this high level for 20-30 mins or until a hard crackling has formed, then reduce the heat to 180-190. Pour in 3 or tbs of water to stop the oil burning on the pan ( you will need to do this occasionally through the cooking time)
Continue to cook for two hours or until the meat is soft and tender. Cool completely and then cut into generous bite sized cubes.
You can do all of this in advance
Heat a frying pan until hot, but don't add any oil. Fry the cubes of meat until they have caramelised, crisped and heated through.
Transfer to a plate and squeeze over plenty of lemon juice and sprinkle liberally with the cumin. Add extra salt to taste if needed.



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