Pork belly is a big favourite in our house but from reading recipes and comments on other lovely blogs, I’ve realised that not everyone can get hold of whole pieces of pork belly. In fact, in Spain I have to ask the butcher to not slice it up as it’s also more typical to sell belly slices.
Usually pork belly slices are barbecued in Spain but here in the UK in December the weather doesn’t really lend itself to outdoor cooking – not that I wouldn’t grab the chance if the weather was perfect at the right moment!
I wanted to use belly slices and to try to recreate some of the smokey flavours in my kitchen without setting off the smoke alarm and causing panic amongst the neighbours. Easy…use the oven Chica!
Ingredients (to service 2)
Turn oven on to almost the highest setting
- A mix of root vegetables cut into large chunks (I used sweet potatoes, potatoes and carrots)
- An onion cut into thick slices and about 6-8 whole garlic cloves
- 6-8 pork belly slices
- 1 heaped teaspoon of mustard powder
- 1 heaped teaspoon of smoked pimentón or paprika
- Salt and pepper
- Olive oil
Put all the vegetables with the onion and garlic into an oven tray, season, drizzle well with oil and mix to ensure all the vegetables are coated.
Rub the pork belly slices in the mustard powder and the pimentón and season lightly.
Cook the vegetables in the oven for about 20 minutes until the vegetables start to soften. Lay the pork belly slices over the top of the vegetables and continue to cook for about another 20 minutes or until the pork belly is browned and crisp.
Enjoy with a warming glass of red wine and if you have any vegetables left over, add some stock the next day, blitz and enjoy a delicious roasted root vegetable soup.
For another pork belly recipe, check out my Smokey Pork with Pimentón and Peppers or Crispy Pork Belly with Stir Fried Cabbage.
Chica Andaluza 
I’m sitting here thinking of what to fix for lunch and this just looks soooo good! 🙂
Thanks Annie!
You’re welcome!
In my neck of the woods, you have to go to the Asian markets to get pork belly, which I feel like doing right now so i can make this, but it’s snowing, quite hard! So it’ll have to wait, but not for long. xo, Angie.
I’m not sure I’d be hardy enough to venture out into the snow – but another day when it’s not smowing, do give it a go!
I’m lucky in that the butcher always has huge pork bellies for sale. I gave up on smoke detectors – I set them off every time I cook. Great recipe and doesn’t hot smoked pimentón go well with all roasted pork 😉
I think I prefer cooking a whole belly but sometimes the strips make a change. And now I’m going to worry about you not having a smoke alarm 😦
It doesn’t worry me – the world functioned without smoke alarms for thousands of years. Kitchens don’t normally catch fire unless you are cooking and if you are cooking you are normally in the kitchen or close by 🙂
True – and I personally have a long track record of setting things on fire. Usually tea towels but the other day I was stripping a door and forgot I had painted it with paint stripper and then put the blow torch on it – it was all rather dramatic but quickly under control 😉
That’s it exactly – you were there. IMHO kitchen smoke detectors are primarily for people who come home from the pub, put food on to cook, then promptly fall asleep. When it comes to cooking supper and putting food into hot fat or oil, smoke detectors turn into a PITA – Peter and the Wolf 😉
🙂 Mind you, my mum wouldn’t agree if you talk to her about the day her kitchen went on fire from the chip pan.Everyone swears blind they each turned the gas off and in the middle of all the drama my cousin went into labour. Don’t think the smoke alarm could have helped much though and she ended up with a nicer kitchen, no one was hurt and we finished the day with a new little baby girl in the family!
There you go 😉
It sounds great but there’s no way I can get Mick to eat fat, no matter how crisp. He’d just cut it into bits and leave it! Dead loss, huh? 😦
Jack Sprat would eat no fat….;)
Back in the day, pork was my FAVOURITE meat. I adore crisp pork fat but alas, I appear to store it incredibly well. That is why I started out on the vego route, I like fitting through doors ;). This recipe looks delish. Might pass it on to my sister 🙂
Hee hee – probably the same for me but I just knock a wall down now so that I can fit through 😉 The roasted veggies were good even without the meat!
Roasted veggies are art…I truly appreciate their beauty :). I love the smell of roasting pork and have to leave the room because a vegan salivating is a sad and sorry sight ;). Knock down a wall you say? We HAVE been talking about getting rid of that pantry…
I’ll be round with my sledgehammer!
😉
Wow. This dish doesn’t mess around. Pork belly! I mostly see this in asian restaurants, but I love the twist you put on it. Mustard powder, pimenton, olive oil. I cannot imagine how good this tastes and smells!!! YUM.
We eat a lot of pork belly – it lends itself to lots of different types of cuisines!
This looks, GREAT… those roasted veggies, MMM. Best, Shanna
Thanks Shanna!
oh this sounds scrumptious.. I have to find some pork belly..oh that’s right, there are some running about in my field!! c
There certainly are a few porkers in your field!
Bloody Plonkers.. morning tanya!.. c
Plonkers – that was the word I was looking for!
Loud laughter at Celi’s comment! Yep, one provider could even be seen on this morning’s photo 🙂 ! Also basically agree with Mad: I live in a ‘gated’ community and grounds managers actually come and replace one’s smoke detectors every little while – amazing how quickly most of us have our stepladders under the thingamajig to remove said noisy batteries!! Oh, lovely pork with that paprika and mustard!!! Lovely snow too 🙂 !
I think she gave us all a good giggle 🙂
Pork belly used to be a staple in my diet. I’d only need to cook one good-sized strip for me because hubby doesn’t like pork much. (Used to keep pigs on the farm and saw what they wallowed in)
Your recipe is a new and delicious sounding variation so I’ll be cooking it soon.
Now when was I going to the butchers? 🙂
Nothing like a good wallow in muck!
What a great way to do them! Here a lot of homes have indoor barbecues 🙂
I would love an indoor barbecue – what am amazingly good idea!
Very good comfort food…..fabulous flavours..
It’s the time of year for comfort food!
Wow, this sounds wonderful. Stick to your ribs good food.
Just what you need in this weather!
Oh yes, winter is here to stay now I’m afraid.
The boys in this household are obsessed with pork belly! I will have to leave this recipe open on the kitchen table and see what responses it elicits! 🙂
Ooh – another household that loves pork belly!
I wish the Management would eat pork belly. I will have to work out a sensible way of having this for myself. (Yes, another ‘Jack Spratt’ – but I will eat just about anything that will stay still on the plate!)
Made me laugh – I eat most things too!
Loverly. Addictive, I’m sure, but I’m still willing to risk it!
😉
You always have the most interesting dishes!! I’ve never had pork belly and I wonder if I can find it around here!
I guess I just take it for granted – it may be sold under the name of pancetta slices?
Thank you for this recipe, Tanya. Although I’ve finally found a butcher with whole pork belly on-hand, everywhere else sells it in strips or chunks. I can get a whole slab if I order it. The very few recipes I’ve found that use strips aren’t at all appealing to me. Yours, though, with the root vegetables roasting in that pig fat, sounds delicious. With temperatures in single digits here, firing up the oven is a great idea for a few reasons. 😉
I think it was a comment from you a while back that made me realise that not everyone can buy whole pork belly easily. It was a simple dish but packed full of flavour and those left over veggies the next day….mmmm! Hope the building work is going ok!
Thanks, Tanya. The work is completed and Max is once again patrolling his yard. All is right in the world. 🙂
That’s a big relief for you all!
For some reason I have a hard time getting over the word belly with this one. I don’t know why it matters. Maybe I should just call it pork.
You could call it pancetta (which in Italian means little belly but sounds much nicer)!
Love that it is snowing in (on?) your blog. Hope that’s all the snow I see, though – it has been super cold here (central Texas) at least *for* here and we are ready for some “cooking outside” weather!! Mmmmmm… I can almost smell this dish!
I’m loving the snow too as we won’t have any for real here!
Thank you for sharing this recipe. It was very delicious 🙂