SLOW COOKED SALTED PORK BELLY

Serves: 4-6
Preparation time: Overnight
Cooking time: 6 hours

METHOD

1. Salt the belly over night. Cover the meat in salt and leave it.
2. Next morning, brush off the salt, and stick the garlic all over the joint in little pockets made with the point of a knife. Season the joint with pepper.
3. Take a container deep enough to cover the belly with lard, and melt the lard separately. Pour it over the joint and include another whole bulb of garlic cut across the cloves, as well as the other flavourings.
4. Put the whole lot in a slow oven; about 130°C, and cook for about three to four hours.
5. It should be easily pulled apart when ready.
6. Leave to cool in the fat.
7. Once cool you can remove it from the fat. I like to slice this - in fact we serve it at the shows we go to with homemade apple relish and open textured focaccia rolls. We slice it and then griddle it to a perfect crispness. For the fat Nazis amongst you, most of the fat disappears when cooked like this.
8. However for those of you who don't mind a bit of meat with your fat, there is a particularly sinful way to enjoy this, and that is to take the cold slice, and dust it with flour, coat it with egg, then roll it in breadcrumbs, and then fry it. This is truly wonderful, but it has been christened here as 'elvis slice' as its probably on a par with fried banana and peanut butter sandwiches. Eat them with a fresh green salad and pickles.

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