Gorgeous pork belly with star anise

I love this recipe so much, all credit for it’s deliciousness goes to Australian food guru Bill Grainger. I have changed it here and there to suit my style of cooking. The sauce is to die for – spicy and sweet (so don’t be expecting a rich gravy type taste). Star anise is my stand out favourite spice, in fact I would decorate my world with star anise if I could.

I served squares of pork belly on top of NZ kumara mash and wilted spinach.

Pork Belly
1.5kg pork belly
1 tbsp sea salt
olive oil
freshly ground black pepper

Star Anise sauce
1/2 cup coconut or brown sugar
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 star anise
1 cinnamon stick or 1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup chicken stock
juice of 1 orange
4 wide strips of orange peel
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

Pork Belly method

Preheat oven to 140C.

Score the skin of the pork belly in a criss-cross pattern with a sharp knife. Drizzle the olive oil over the pork belly skin and rub the sea salt into it.
Put the pork belly in a roasting tin skin-side down, drizzle with a little more oil and season with salt and pepper. Cover and seal with tin foil.

Roast for 3 hours, take out from oven and check to see if the pork is very soft, juicy and easy to pull a small piece off. If not then place back in the oven for another 30 mins. Make the sauce (see below) while the pork is roasting.

Remove the pork from the oven, uncover and turn over carefully. Place the pork under a hot grill to crackle the skin. Remove, cover loosely with foil and set aside to rest for at least 20 minutes. Slice the pork and drizzle with the star anise sauce.

Star Anise sauce method

Put the sugar, vinegar, star anise and cinnamon in a small saucepan and cook, stirring, over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil and simmer for 5 minutes, or until thickened and syrupy. Add the chicken stock and simmer for another 5 minutes. Add the orange juice and peel, reduce the heat to low and simmer gently until slightly thicker and reduced (about 20 mins). Season to taste. Thicken with 1 tsp of cornflour mixed into a little water.