Slow-roast pork belly

Sunday, and I'm feeling reasonably well. It appears it was a good idea to go see a doctor, and to take the antibiotics he gave me. Usually, I'm not a huge fan of antibiotics, especially not for "minor" infections like a cold. But the last cold that behaved like this one was starting to gave me 4 months of fun. Yes - 4 *beep* months. So, as I told the doc, I can't have that again, and if I have to take 52 (!) pills for that, so be it.

Anyhoo, I digress. I have been lusting for slow-roasted pork belly with mash for ages. It's on pretty much every menu in pretty much every place I eat. However, I can't order it, as nobody in their right minds would consider serving mash without butter. And that means, it's off limits for me.

So poor me had to do her own - harsh! 5 GBP get you 2 pounds of pork belly, readily scorched and rolled. That's enough pork belly to feed me for a week, so it'll have to be shared.

Today, I'm going to make it easy for me.

After an hour and a half:


The recipe I worked off is here - I just made a few adjustments.




There are still 4 pounds of apples sitting in my airing cabinet, so I added two chopped apples to the roasting vegetables. Also, I lacked celery, so I left it out. And, last but not least, my Thyme was in need of pruning, but I also had a huge bunch of Rosemary sitting in my fridge, so I cut down the garlic to 2 cloves, added Rosemary and 2 Bay leaves to the handful or so Thyme.





The suggestion is to serve some "nice greens" with it. Well - what can I say? If I want nice greens, that's a whole different dish. So all I served with it was mash. Without butter :(