Roast pork with Peach chutney

Roast pork is a true Sunday lunch staple, and the best part is undoubtedly the crispy crackling. Over the years, I’ve tried many ways to make the perfect crackling, and I can now say that I have finally found the best and most reliable technique ever! It’s a Chinese method: you basically dry out the skin in the fridge overnight and then cover it in salt for the first 1 1/2 hour of baking. This draws out all the moisture and results in a super thin an perfect crackling. Honestly, it’s amazing!

Since roast pork belly is quite a fatty cut, it’s great to accompany it with something to cut through the fatty taste. A chutney is perfect for this, as it’s lightly acidic. Plus fruits goes very well with pork. For this summery roast, I’ve used peaches. You can easily replace them with apples in autumn.

I hope you like this recipe as much as I do. It has certainly become a staple in my house and in my cooking classes.

Ingredients

1.2 kg pork belly*
fine sea salt

For the pork marinade:
60ml soy sauce
60ml sherry
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp five spice powder
200ml water

For the peach chutney:
2 onions
2 tbsp olive oil
5 peaches
1 red chili
2 branches of rosemary
40ml red wine vinegar
50g sugar
40ml white wine
salt

Method

Serves 6

Start a day ahead: Using a paper towel, pat the skin of pork belly until it’s completely dry. Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl and then pour into a rectangular glass or ceramic container that is big enough to hold the pork belly. Place the pork belly into the marinade, making sure only the meat touches the marinade and the skin stays completely dry. Place in fridge overnight.

The next day: Preheat oven to 170°C.

Take the pork out of the fridge and spread a layer of approx 3mm of fine salt evenly across the pork belly skin. Bake the pork and the marinade for 1 hour and 15 mins.

Remove pork belly from the oven and increase oven temperature to 225°C. Take the salt crust off the pork, and bake for another 30 minutes until skin is completely bubbly and crisp. You can turn on the grill for another 10 minutes if the skin is not crisp enough.

While the pork is in the oven, prepare the chutney.

Peel and slice the onions. Heat the olive oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and fry the onions for a good 10 minutes until meltingly soft.

Meanwhile, peel the peaches (if the skin doesn’t come off easily, cut a cross into each peach and dip into boiling water for 1 minute). Destone and cut into small cubes. Deseed the chili and finely chop.

After 10 minutes, add the peaches, chili, rosemary, vinegar, sugar and white wine to the pan. Cover and cook for 30 minutes until the peaches are really soft, stirring from time to time. Using a potato masher, mash the chutney. Adjust the seasoning with a bit of salt.

Serve hot or cold with the pork.

*If you’re using a bigger piece of meat, calculate an additional 30 minutes in the oven for every additional 500g, before removing the salt crust