The Lone Gent's Pork Belly

Today, inspired by a discussion/bragging session in work and the pork belly in my freezer, I decided to buy some (more) pork belly.  A while back I attempted a recipe by Stefan Gates involving a lot of garlic, bay leaves, star anise and very low temperatures followed by a brief bout of very high temperatures.  This wasn't entirely successful as the fat never really got to a pleasing level of crackling that I guess is the highlight of the meal.  So after mentioning this I was advised by a trusted source that the only correct way to do this was by subjecting the belly to the hot temperature first before lowering the heat until the it is properly cooked.  This was the method I used this evening although the belly I purchased had very little fat on the top making the appearance of proper crackling as unlikely as ever.

To begin with I had to mash up the paste for the top.  I decided not to follow the recipe and just guess at what should be in it as I didn't want to find it and not have everything (bay leaves!).  I used garlic, star anise, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cardamon pods and pepper with red palm oil mixed in.

Next I rubbed the paste on the pork, I will say it looks pretty foul but that's the risk to achieve the Maillard Reaction, and it's mostly garlic that I didn't cut and didn't mash very well.

So these went under the grill for a few minutes and were then taken out so the veg could cook while the oven cooled down to 70.  I drained some of the juices to make the gravy and put it in a frying pan with corn flour, soy sauce, pepper, ginger and cinnamon.  Cooked these for a bit with some of the onions and it looked like this slop:

 After about 45 minutes in the at 70C it was done and I ate it and I enjoyed it (even the veg) with a dose of Dixon and Jawdin on 90210.  Closing opinion of the method would be that with such a thin layer of fat on top the pork couldn't be grilled long enough to get enough crisp in the crackling, I found with a spare bit that another 3 minutes and it was good but then the rest of the pork was very leathery.  Luckily I can try again with the thicker bit in my freezer and see!  Concerning news is that my tummy hurts and is making bad noises but I don't reckon pork worms could have grown to a size in me to make such noises yet so hopefully it is not slow cooked pork related.

I definitely recommend Stefan Gate's book, Gastronaut, for a lot more some would say stupid and excessive recipes, from the simple bum sandwich to pineapple in a lot of sugar and he also recommends music to have with his meals.  My brother hates any mention of it though, so be prepred for much doubt.

Rugger

In all my time in Wales the 6 Nations has finally gone quite well from an England point of view.  While the Grand Slam will require a difficult victory today this year is the first time there hasn't been some shame for me as an Englishman in Wales.  Usually either England do respectably but lose to Wales or they just fail around with mediocrity, so it's nice that such glorious beasts should at least win the championship this year.  Yay!

In other news I'd like BYU to do well in March Madness - NCAA Div I Basketball Tournament.  I've got a few fantasy games reliant on this as my decisions are always based on the 1 team I know about that year.  I played canoe polo for the first time in 4 months and fortunately my throwing arm was a beast in drills and war ups, in a game though it made me hit the goal post a few times and that was it.  Also the gaping empty chasm that was once my fitness required me to do a lot of fouls to try and keep up with people or to stop them getting away in a feeble last few minutes of the game.  Next week though...

NBA Games! and the draft & manly sadness

NBA Games, a poor title in the imagination stakes but accurate in that games were played so good job deciding that...

On Friday was the first NBA league match held in Europe, specifically at the O2 in London.  It was really good and from the sound of it Saturday's game was even better.

Unfortunately these games were both won by the New Jersey Nets, the problem was I went into the game only wanting a loss for them while not especially caring that Toronto would be the winners.  These selfish desires stemmed from the Utah Jazz owning New Jersey's draft pick for this year as a result of sending my favourite player (and the name on a shirt on only recently bought!), Deron Williams, to New Jersey.

 :(

More losses means a higher pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and a better likelihood of a good player to get Utah back on track next year.  During the Friday night game Deron started with some poor shooting but in the end did the good stuff and lead New Jersey comfortably to a win.  I found whenever he scored, made someone look stupid with a dribble or did a pass reminiscent of my own skills that I had to applaud and force a smile while also wilting internally as it truly dawned that these things would no longer be happening for Utah.

In the second game I'm sure he was also the main reason for all the win and fun New Jersey had but I only caught the end as I had to be out buying t-shirts while I was still in London.  All in all this was another blast of the pain of seeing Fernando Torres in a Chelsea shirt the week after he fled Liverpool.  Although Fernando said he wanted to leave Liverpool, Deron was traded in fear of him later demanding to leave Utah and so I was still proud when he got the loudest cheer at the start.

It's a lot of hurt for a steely man such as myself.

Shoulder/Back Back! (Teaser)

To be described in more depth soon, this is a tale of moaning, laziness and general lacking of compassion from my peers.  Basically I've not done much in the way of gym or kayaking since September due to a back injury but following some suggestions from Mered could  have become massaged back to health.

Today I attempted both of the mentioned activities and came away with what appear to be good signs.  Unfortunately my stamina has slipped so greatly that it was hard to really push myself for long to really investigate my recovery.   Stamina though is another post for sometime a week or month away.