Porkbelly!

Today is a good day for a little food porn.

Especially after doing my geeky T25 routine in the living room

and starting another batch of sprouts 

This weekend I went 'hog wild' - pun intended

I had defrosted a whole pork belly from my Old Ackley Farm pig

with full intentions of making a round of bacon

(this by the way is super easy and I would be happy to talk to anyone about trying it)

But realized that I would be traveling in the midst of the cure

So, I pulled out the Ottolenghi cookbook I bought in October,

precisely for his pork belly recipe

And, 3 hours later,

I had the most delicious,

 decadent, melt in your mouth, winter fat, 

can't stop eating, need to put this in the freezer,

pork belly I've ever had.

You just smear the meat side with a blended paste of

thyme, rosemary, garlic and olive oil

flip it over, salt the skin,

and roast it for three hours in white wine

turning the oven down each hour from 500, to 300 to 200 degrees

Some roasted sweet potato puree

Which I did by roasting the sweet potatoes whole, 

then melted a bit of butter and fresh ginger in a sauce pan,

 added a touch of cream and let it bubble to thicken and then

 mashed the sweets in with a touch of salt and pepper

and stirred until warm all the way through.

A little sautéed green cabbage and some wild blackberry jam from the fall -

Delicious!

Thank you Mr. Ottolenghi and Mr. Tamimi for inspiring

a seasoned chef.

Enjoy!

Kyra