Roasted Pork Belly with Spiced Honey Glaze

Before I go and find a quiet place to be before I start cooking dinner, I thought I'd better get this recipe posted.  I mentioned that I was trying out a 'Better Homes & Gardens' recipe from the TV episode on Friday night and as it happened, it turned out beautifully.  Miss Mischief was thrilled that the crackle worked out and Dh and I enjoyed the honey glaze.

Roasted Pork Belly with Spiced Honey Glaze

1.5kg pork belly, deboned

salt

olive oil

Glaze

1 tablespoons honey

2 cloves garlic, roughly smashed

2 star anise

2 tablespoons coriander seeds, slightly crushed

2 fresh bay leaves

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and place the pork belly (with rind still on) in with about a tablespoon of salt and simmer for about 30-45 minutes.
2. Preheat oven to 200C/ 400F (180C/350F for fan forced)
3. Lift the pork from the pot and score the fat.
4. Brush with plenty of oil and sprinkle liberally with salt.
5. Place on a rack over a baking tray and pour some boiling water into the bottom of the baking pan.
6. Bake for about an hour.  If the crackle hasn't 'crackled' you can remove it and place under a griller, or turn on the grill elements in your oven.
7. Slice the pork belly and arrange on a platter, and serve with glaze poured over.

To make the glaze:

1. Place the honey in a small saucepan with the garlic, star anise, coriander seeds and bay leaves and bring to the boil.  Turn off the heat and set aside.
2. When you bring the pork out of the oven, pour off the pan juices into the glaze and bring back to the boil.
3. Pour over the sliced pork.

Of course, now you'll need to know how flexible this recipe is :)  I used a boneless pork shoulder and did everything as the recipe suggested, except for the coriander seeds.  I couldn't find any whole, so I just sprinkle about 1/4 teaspoon of ground coriander seed (which I always have in my pantry) into the glaze mixture.  It worked just fine.

In the end, this recipe took the same amount of time to cook as if I'd just put it in the oven to roast, however, it was much more moist and tender as a result of the boiling and then roasting process.  I did remove the rind and place it under the griller separately even after I'd had the griller element in the oven on and that worked much better so I would just skip the grill-in-the-oven step altogether.  Course, you have to watch it closely so it doesn't burn on you.  My hawk eyed crackle lover took care of that task for me!

I suspect you could cook the pork in the crockpot and do the crackle separate and I would think it should work out nicely.  If I ever try that out I'll let you know.  Or....YOU could try and out and let ME know!