The Crowd Pleaser/Veggie Lasagne

I call this dish the crowd pleaser because it is a brilliant dish to serve a large group of people and makes the cook just as happy as the guests because it's really simple to make and it's inexpensive.
It's vegetarian, so if you have veggie diners, you don't have to worry about cooking them a separate dish, because it's every bit as 'meaty' as the meat version. It's at least as good re-heated the next day, so you can prepare ahead if you like. Serve with a garden salad dressed with balsamic vinaigrette.
Robust Vegetarian Lasagne
Feeds 6 Takes 1 hour

1 medium-sized aubergine (eggplant)
2 courgettes (zucchini)
7-8 large closed cup mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 400g tin crushed tomatoes
1 package spinach lasagne noodles
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp butter
3 tbsp flour
3 tsp salt
300ml good veg stock (or chicken stock if you're not vegetarian)
400ml milk
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
large handful freshly grated parmesan
300g fresh buffalo mozerella
2 large, ripe tomatoes
2 sprigs fresh basil
2 tbsp olive oil

Start by cutting the aubergine into batons approximately 1 1/2 cm square by 6 cm long. (slice length-wise, then cut those slices into strips, then cut those strips in half) Heat the olive oil in a deep frying pan, and when hot, add the aubergine pieces, turning them in the oil until all coated. While these begin to sizzle, dice the mushrooms into pieces approximately 2-3 cm and halve, then slice the courgettes. When the aubergines have been cooking for a few minutes and are beginning to colour, add the mushrooms, courgettes and the salt. Stir to combine and then allow to cook over a medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until all the veg are tender and most of the moisture that has bled out has cooked away. Stir in the tomatoes and garlic and cook for a further ten or so minutes.
Turn the oven on to 180 C/ 375 F
Meanwhile, make what I call 'Cheats Bechamel' It's far quicker than a normal bechamel because you don't have to steep the milk with the veg and herbs, but the flavour is just as lovely.
In a small sauce pan, melt the butter until gently bubbling, then tip in the flour and stir. You should have a thick paste-like mixture, which you want to cook for a few minutes, stirring periodically until it smells slightly nutty and is a little darker in colour. Stir in the stock, about a third at a time, bringing the pan to a simmer each time and beating out any lumps before adding the next lot in. When all of the stock has been added, add the bay leaves and begin with the milk, adding/warming/stirring until you have a smooth sauce the consistency of pourable custard. Grate in the nutmeg and stir in the parmesan, mixing through evenly.
Set aside for a few minutes until ready to use.
Slice the balls of mozzerella about 5mm thick and the tomato as thin as you can and prepare to assemble the dish.

In a lasagne dish, layer : 1 layer uncooked noodles, then 1/2 the veg mixture, then 1/3 of the bechamel, then another layer of noodles. Top with the remaining veg mixture, 1/3 of the bechamel, more noodles, and then the remaining bechamel. Evenly scatter the whole basil leaves across the top, then lay out the slices of mozzerella and finish with the slices of tomato. If you like, a smattering of crushed red chillies is also very tasty.

Bake in the oven for 30 minutes, or until golden and bubbly, then let it rest at room temp for fifteen minutes before cutting into and serving.
Vegetarian Lasagne Recipe

Harissa Spiced Salmon With Cucumber Herb Cous Cous and Sumac Roasted Tomatoes

Because my husband really doesn't like fish very much, I tend to cook it a lot less often than I would like. When I do, I try to compensate for my fishy offense by cooking it in a way I hope he'll like, with side dishes he enjoys. In a way, it's like trying to get a child to enjoy his veggies, but that's another blog post. I love to use spice with robust, oily fish like salmon and mackerel and the complex warmth of harissa is a prefect treatment, especially when served with a cooling cous cous salad and fruity sumac roasted tomatoes. I used to roast small on-the-vine cherry tomatoes, but they have a lot of fiddly skin, which I don't like on cooked tomatoes. Now, if I'm roasting them I use very ripe* vine-ripened tomatoes and they're lovely.

Harissa Spiced Salmon with Cucumber Herb Cous Cous and Sumac Roasted Tomatoes
Serves 4, takes 1 lazy hour.

1 500g salmon fillet (skin on, or off, whichever you prefer) pinboned
Harissa:
12 large dried chillies
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp caraway seeds
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
3 lg cloves garlic
1 tsp salt
Cous Cous Salad:
300ml (volume) cous cous
300ml boiling water
1 tsp sea salt
zest and juice of half a lemon (finely zested)
10cm piece cucumber
large handful curly leaf parsley
3 sprigs mint, leaves picked
3 large sprigs dill
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Tomatoes:
8 large, red vine ripened tomatoes
3 tbsp (not extra virgin) olive oil
1 tsp crushed sumac ****
1 tsp coarse sea salt

First, sort out your cous cous and chillies. In a large, heat-proof dish, put your couscous and the salt, the dried chillies can go into a smaller bowl. Boil a kettle and pour enough water over the chillies to cover them and 300ml of water over the cous cous. Stir the cous cous and cover for a few minutes, then when all of the water has been absorbed, add the lemon zest and juice, fluff all of the grains with a fork, then put the bowl of cous cous in the fridge to cool while you prepare the rest of the meal.
Pour yourself a glass of wine or a G&T to sip.
Now to make the harissa. in a pestle and mortar, add the salt and spices and grind well to make a fairly fine powder (coriander seeds are hard to get too fine, but don't worry, they're fine a little coarser)
Then add the garlic to the mortar and mash into a paste with the spices. Drain the chillies and remove the seeds and stems, chop finely** and add to the mortar. Pound this mixture for a few minutes until you have a thick, fragrant paste, then mix in the oil and transfer to a small jar, as you wont need all of it.
Heat your oven to 180C/375F

With the salmon skin-side-down, cut the salmon fillet cross-ways to get four equal portions and spoon a couple of teaspoons of the harissa onto each one. Use a silicone brush or the back of the spoon to spread it evenly all over each piece, set aside for a few minutes.

For the tomatoes, wash them and use the tip of a sharp knife to cut out the tough spot where it was attached to the stem. Cut a shallow X about 2cm in each direction across the little hole and arrange them all clustered together in a small baking dish. Drizzle with the olive oil, then sprinkle with the sea salt and sumac. Put on the bottom shelf of the oven, saving the top shelf for the salmon.

Back to the salmon, heat a medium sized, oven-proof*** sautee or frying pan over a medium heat and when nice and hot, place spice-side-down. Don't try to move or prod the salmon for a couple of minutes, as you want a little bit of a crust to form. After two mins, use a spatula to gently turn over the fish, then put the whole pan into the oven, setting the timer for five minutes.

During these five minutes, cut the cucumber into 1 cm dice and finely chop the mint, parsley and dill. Remove the nearly cold couscous from the fridge and stir in the cucumber, herbs and olive oil.

Remove the tomatoes and salmon from the oven and serve immediately with the cous cous. The salmon should be just done but still very moist and tender.

This whole meal is also terrific cold, so if you make extra, you have a brilliant one-box lunch to take to work the next day.

Cook's Notes:
*I learned a few years ago not to store my tomatoes in the fridge. Toms will only retain their flavour well and ripen properly at room temp, while tomatoes stored in the fridge will lose flavour and go mealy. Once ripe, try to use within 3-4 days.

**I never learn personally, but it's a good idea to wear latex gloves when handling chillies. I can't count the number of times I've been temporarily blinded while washing my face hours after chopping these spicy little gits.

***If you don't have a frying pan that you can transfer into the oven, put a small baking dish in the oven to pre-heat. When you turn over the salmon, turn them into the piping hot baking dish and finish them in the oven.

****Sumac is a berry often used in North African and Middle Eastern cookery. The flavour is almost like a subtle cross between thyme, lemon and black tea. You can buy it in the spice section at your grocer, usually ground to the texture of black pepper and dark reddish purple.

Salmon

Product review- Mino Sharp 220/BR Ceramic Water Sharpener

My knives (basic Henckels) have been professionally sharpened several times over the years. I usually wait longer than I should, because of the inconvenience of being without them for days at a time, but last summer, I found the Mino Sharp ceramic water sharpener at a small kitchenware shop near my home. Based on the recommendation of the shop owner and her return policy, I decided to try it. The sharpener cost £24, which was preferable to spending nearly £40 to have all my knives sharpened again.
The gadget works using two pairs of ceramic discs that sit in a shallow well of water beneath a guard which has two narrow slots through which t draw the blade, which prevent you from making mistakes with the angle. Depending on how blunt your knives are, you need to steadily and firmly draw the knife 7-20 times through each of the two pairs of discs. The first pair grinds the blade edge down, the second hones it to a razor sharp edge.
Each knife will take about 2 minutes to sharpen, then you simply wash the well and discs, dry , and store for future use.
I have used the Mino Sharp twice now, the first time on all of my knives and the last on the chef's knives, cleaver and boning knife I use the most. I have found that by keeping the blades honed by regular use of my honing steel, my knives have not needed a trip to the kitchen shop at all. I even managed to get a killer edge on the $5 cleaver I bought at the Oriental grocer in Phoenix four years ago.

If you have a good number of forged steel knives that you want to be able to sharpen at home, I would definitely recommend the Mino Sharp. They are available from Amazon, Russums and Art of Living among other places.

When I have a knife block full of Tojiro Senkous, I will employ fairies to sharpen them for me but until then, this is probably the best kitchen gadget I've bought in a long while. Well worth the £24.

Other ways to prolong the length of your knives' life:
* A traditional sharpening steel should be used to maintain the sharp blade, but does not actually sharpen the edge, it merely straightens it out. No matter how many swipes you give a dull knife, it will still be dull when you're finished.
*Don't ever use the sharp edge to scrape or move ingredients across a chopping board (the very thought is making my toes curl!)
* Never use harsh or abrasive cleansers to clean your blades and don't leave them soaking in water, gentle cleaning with a mild detergent is sufficient.
*Don't put your knives in the dishwasher. Aside from the harsh detergents, the rattling and banging about won't do the blades any favours. Loose knives in the dishwasher can be dangerous if you don't see them when reaching in for something else.
*Use polythene, polypropylene or wooden cutting boards. Glass, granite or other hard surfaces will dull your blades and are unsafe to cut on, as your blade can skid on them.
*Store your knives in a knife block, a drawer block or on a magnetic rack. Storing them loose in a drawer is unsafe for the blade and for your fingertips.

Vegetarian Chilli for Carnivores

Every week, when I get home from the grocery store, one of the first things my husband says is "How'd you do?" What he means is "How much did you spend?" Like most people, I have a pretty strict grocery budget to stick to every week, out of which I must get three meals per day, plus snacks, for three adults. Beside budget, my priorities (in no particular order) are flavour, variation and nutritional benefit.
For health, budget and ecological reasons, we generally have at least one vegetarian meal per week and because my guys' taste for meat is only slightly lower than that of cavemen, I have to be careful not to try and pass off very obviously vegetarian food as dinner. Things like margherita pizza, risotto, pasta and veggie curries are generally received well, but probably the most successful is my recipe for black bean and pearl barley chilli. The barley has a texture very similar to meat when simmered for a long time and when garnished with a lovely combination of fresh veg and herbs you really don't notice the lack of beef, my stepson had no idea.

This recipe is a little spicy, especially when garnished with the chilli at the end, so feel free to adjust to taste. Also, I use chicken stock (which I know is not vegetarian) because I always have some in the fridge, but if you want to make it truly veggie, just substitute with veg stock. The ingredients are packed with fibre, vitamins, protein and whole grain goodness, and it's a brilliant slimming food, as it's so filling.
The best part, for my husband at least, is that it costs less than 80p (50 cents) per serving.



Black Bean and Pearl Barley Chilli
serves 6 hungry people, cooking time 2 1/2 hours (or all day in a crock pot)

200g (dry weight)dried black beans, soaked over night**
100g pearl barley
1 large onion, diced finely
1 large stalk celery, diced finely
1 medium carrot, diced finely
3 large cloves garlic, minced
1 400g tin crushed tomatoes
1 80g tin tomato puree
600 ml chicken (or veggie) stock
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp hot chilli powder
2 tsp salt (or to taste)
2 tbsp light olive or canola (rapeseed) oil

Various optional toppings (maybe have everyone add their own?):
sour cream
celery leaves (from the smaller, tender stalks at the middle of a crown of celery)
thinly sliced radish
spring onions thinly sliced on the bias
thinly sliced fresh creen chilli
queso fresco
fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves
crushed corn tortilla chips (for the teens)

In a large saucepan, heat the oil over a medium heat and add the onion, celery and carrot. Sweat in the oil for 4-5 minutes until beginning to get translucent and tender. Add all of the spices and garlic to the veg and cook for a further couple of minutes. Drain the soaked beans and stir them into the pot with the pearl barley. Now add the tomatoes, stock and tomato paste, bring to a slight boil, then lower the temperature to low, cover and allow to cook gently for 2 hours. Check periodically to make sure you have plenty of moisture and don't add the salt yet, as the beans will not become as tender as quickly. If, after two hours there is still more liquid than you like, just remove the lid and allow it to cook with the lid off for a little while longer. When almost done, add the salt, cook for another minute or two and allow to cool for a few minutes before serving.

Serve with plain steamed long grain rice and the veggie toppings

** soaking over night not only speeds along the cooking process and prevents the beans from going mushy, it also helps prevent much of the -ahem- embarrassing side affects of eating a large portion of beans.

Vegetarian Chilli

Yangshuo Stylie Spicy Chicken and Broccoli

Last April, my husband Drew and I took an eight day trip to China with some holiday vouchers I won from Virgin (Aces!) Being me, I was more excited about eating 'proper' Chinese dishes than I was about nearly anything else about the trip. Whether for better or for worse, we went on a pre-arranged tour and many of our meals were included in the cost of the trip at restaurants which catered to Western palates, which was a shame.
Unfortunately, most of that food was exactly the same as the stuff we get in our cheap takeaways and were swimming in oil. The best places to eat, as is often the case were odd little places that we'd stumbled across during our free time away from the guides. We tried -among other things- dodgy bits of deep-fried pig intestine, baby bird-on-a-stick, pureed corn smoothies, dumplings and and famous hot pot (but not the dog).
During our last few days in China, while visiting a small town called Yangshuo, we had the opportunity to take a morning long cookery course, which began at a massive indoor food market. Aside from the horrible animal welfare standards, this was a brilliant place, filled with farmers and stall holders and women doing their daily shop for that night's dinner. All around were women picking rabbits and live chickens up out of cages, feeling their legs and wings and either putting them back to choose an other or taking their chosen animal to the butcher area to be dispatched. We stayed away from that area, as that was where the dogs were kept and I'm sorry, but I'm not quite that open-minded.

Most of the dishes we learned to make were similar to familia Chinese takeaway meals we're all familiar with, but with much fresher flavours and very peculiar to the Guilin region. The dish below is a slightly modified version of the Chicken with peanuts we learned. It has become a firm family favorite and is one of my preferred ways to use dark meat chicken.

Serve it either with plain steamed long grain rice or with egg-fried rice.




Yangshuo Style Spicy Chicken and Broccoli
Serves 4, Takes approximately 30 minutes, start-to-finish

4 free-range chicken thighs
2 large handfuls, broccoli florets
1 medium carrot,
1 large onion
1 stalk celery
handful radishes
2 cm ginger root, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
small handful raw peanuts
200ml water
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp shaoxing rice wine
1 tbsp corn flour
6 dried red chillies, split
2tbsp ground nut oil (or canola/rapeseed/grape seed)

In a pan of boiling water, blanch the broccoli florets for 3 minutes, then drain and plunge into a bowl of very cold or iced water to stop the cooking. You want them to still be bright green and just undercooked. Drain when cooled. Meanwhile, remove the skin and bones from the chicken thighs (don't discard them, put them aside for stock!) cut into 2.5cm/1" chunks.
Peel the onion, cut in half and slice with the natural grain. Peel and halve the carrot lengthways then slice 3mm/1/8" thick on the diagonal. slice the celery the same and quarter the radishes.
If you're serving it over plain white rice, you'll want to start that cooking now.**

Over the highest heat you have, bring your wok (or wide frying pan) up to smoking point, then add the oil. Add the sliced onions to the pan and stir-fry for a few minutes until starting to get a little colour but still quite firm. Remove the onions to a plate with a slotted spoon, leaving as much of the oil behind as you can and set aside.
Add the ginger and garlic to the pan and str-fry for 30 secs-1 minute, taking care not to let it brown. Mix the chicken in with the garlic and ginger and keep it moving to allow the outside of all the pieces to get coated with the ginger and garlic and begin to cook. At this point, you want to create the sauce, so add the water, vinegar, soy sauce, shaoxing rice wine and oyster sauce, stirring to combine. Cook for 1-2 mins, moving from time to time to ensure even cooking. Add the carrot, celery, radishes, peanuts and chillies, and continue to stir-fry for another 3-4 mins. Mix the corn flour with a tablespoon full of water and add as needed to the simmering pan, stirring to create a thicker sauce. Now that the sauce is thickened and the chicken is cooked though, bring the broccoli florets into the mix and bring the onions back to the pan. Stir over the heat for a minute to warm them both through and remove the whole lot from the heat. You should have a fairly thick sauce, tender chicken and veggies which are a little al dente (to the tooth!)
Serve immediately over rice (see below)

**For perfect steamed rice for 4 peeps-

Rinse 1 cup of long grain white rice in cold water, then add 1 1/2 cups of water and bring to a boil. The second it comes to a boil, add a little salt and turn the heat down almost to the lowest temperature and cover. It will take 8-10 minutes to cook. Lift the lid from time to time and look for little holes in the top of the rice, if there's no water bubbling up through those holes, turn off the heat and cover until you're ready to use it.

Chinese Chicken Stir Fry

My Best Ever Lamb Curry

This is my favorite lamb curry recipe ever. It's fairly simple and has the most gorgeous, velvety sauce which is made by the onions melting completely with yogurt and spices. If you're in a place where you can't get a hold of lamb shoulder, or if it's too expensive, skinned, bone-in chicken thighs would make a lovely alternative, but don't use breasts, as they will go stringy and tough during the cooking process. You can buy diced stewing lamb, but if you buy a whole shoulder, you'll pay quite a bit less AND you'll have the bones for stock. This recipe makes a fairly hot curry, so if you're making it for kids or people who like their food a little milder, I'd suggest using less of the chili powder and when slicing the green chilies, make sure that you trim all of the membrane out first, as that's where the heat is, not the seeds. (The membrane is the pale strips of spongy tissue that the seeds are attached to)
Authenticity is usually my aim when making Indian, so I welcome correction or comments.
I served this tonight with onion dhal (recipe to follow) and saffron rice.



Spicy Lamb in Curry Sauce
shown served with onion dhal and saffron rice
Serves 6 takes approx 1 hour, 45mins

1kg lamb shoulder, cut into 4cm chunks (discard any large bands of fat)
4 medium onions, sliced very thinly into half moons
3 tbsp ghee* or sunflower oil
2 ripe tomatoes, quartered
4 green chillies, sliced lengthwise
5 cloved garlic, minced,
2" piece ginger root, peeled and grated
250ml plain yoghurt
1 1/2 tbsp whole coriander seeds
1 1/2 tbsp sesame seeds
3 tbsp dessicated (not sweetened) coconut
1 1/2 tbsp brown mustard seeds
1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp garam masala
1 tbsp hot chili powder (or to taste)
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
handful fresh coriander (cilantro) leaves
3 tsp salt

In a dry pan on a medium heat, toast the coriander, cumin, coconut, mustard seeds, sesame seeds and fenugreek, moving the mixture around in the pan to prevent scorching. after a couple of minutes, when the spices are fragrant and darker in colour, tip them into a pestle and mortar and grind until fairly fine. Add the salt and chili powder to this mix and with the ginger, garlic and yoghurt. Add the meat to the spice/yoghurt mixture and stir to completely cover all the meat, then set aside for half an hour or so while you do the rest of the prep for the meal.
In a medium pan, heat the ghee (or oil) and add all those sliced onions, stirring to coat in the oil and then from time to time to ensure even cooking. Once soft and golden, add the meat and spice mixture. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring time to time to start all the meat cooking nicely. Add 400ml water and bring to a low simmer, then cover loosely and lower the heat and let it gently tick away for an hour. Check the pot every so often to make sure that the bottom isn't catching. If the moisture isn't evaporating quickly enough, leave the pot uncovered until the meat is cooked through and tender and the onions have completely fallen apart. Stir in the garam masala, lemon juice, sliced chilies and tomatoes and allow to cook for five more minutes.

Garnish with plenty of fresh coriander and serve with either plain boiled basmati rice or pilao rice and a lentil dish like the onion dhal below.

*Ghee is clarified butter. Khanum brand is the most widely available in the UK and has a slightly cheesy (rancid?) quality that I think adds to the authenticity of most curries but it's not essential.


Onion Dhal

200g urid dhal
1 tbsp ghee or sunflower oil
600ml water
1 bunch spring onions (scallions) chopped
2 cm fresh ginger root, grated
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 cm fresh turmeric root, finely grated (or 1 tsp dried, ground turmeric)**
1 tsp salt
1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

Rinse the dhal well and set aside. Fry the onion, ginger and garlic for a few minutes until fragrant, then add the turmeric. stir to combine and add the dhal and the water. Bring to a simmer and lower the heat, allowing the lentils to cook gently fo about 20-25 minutes until tender and all the water has evaporated, then stir in the salt. Adding the salt before the lentils have cooked through can make them hard and bullet-like instead of tender. This is also true for other lentils and dried beans. always add the salt at the end.
Sprinkle over the green chili (if using) and serve immediately. I always make extra and have it with eggs for breakfast the next day.

**Turmeric is known to have phenomenal medicinal properties. It's brilliant on cuts and grazes, as it is a natural antiseptic, but it is also used to treat everything from liver diseases, digestive disorders, arthritis and even cancer. Careful though, it stains like a bugger.
Lamb Curry

Roast Belly Of Pork With Root Veg

Whenever I try to imagine life as a vegetarian, almost always, the first thing that pops into my head is "What? No roast pork with crackling?!" Bacon, lamb chops, and roast chicken are almost as perfect, but I almost believe that something other-worldly is involved in the creation of perfectly crisp, salty skin teamed up with falling-apart-tender meat beneath. I will often do the pork belly as a part of a Chinese meal, but my favorite is still a simple, spice-rubbed joint served with roasted root veg. If you're in the States, or anywhere else where pork with the skin on is scarce, Go to the meat counter at a Mexican or Asian market, they know that the skin is the best part. Anyone with an iPhone knows how awful the camera is, so I apologize for the picture...

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Crispy Belly of Pork Roasted with Root Veg

1Kg (2 lbs) pork belly, skin on and ribs attached.
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp caraway seeds
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
500g fresh small beets
500g large carrots
2 medium yellow onions
5-6 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
bunch spring onions
1tbsp olive oil

Heat you oven as high as you can, and while it warms up, lay the pork belly skin-side-up in a large roasting tin. Pat as dry as you can with paper towels and use a VERY sharp knife to score the skin from side to side about 5mm (1/4") apart. You want to cut far enough down that you're going through the skin, but not the fat or into the meat. This will help the fat run off and promote super crispy skin.
Use you hands to stretch the skin so that the cuts open up a bit. Sprinkle over the 1 tbsp salt, caraway and fennel seeds and rub into the skin, making sure to get as much as you can into the little slits.
Put into the super-hot oven for 25 minutes before reducing the heat to 170C/340F to cook for two hours.
Meanwhile, prep the veggies. Peel and halve the baby beetroots and peel and cut the carrots into chunks about the same size as the beets. Peel and quarter the onions and give the garlic cloves a whack with the side of your knife. Toss this lot in the olive oil and remaining teaspoon of salt and tip into the area around the pork roast before it settles down for its 2-hour low/slow roast.
You'll want to turn the veg every half hour or so to prevent the natural sugars burning and ensure even roasting.
Fifteen minutes before everything is done, toss in the spring onions so that they cook, but don't lose their colour or texture. Test the root veggies' doneness by inserting the tip of a sharp knife into the centre. Give them a few minutes longer if you need to, it takes a LOT to overcook pork belly in this way. Tap the skin with the knife also, and if not yet hard and crunchy, pop it under a hot grill for a few minutes. Whatever you do though, don't leave the pork belly unattended under the grill, as it can burn very easily.

To serve, cut the belly in one piece from the ribs. Turn it skin-side-down and use a sharp knife to slice down through the meat and skin. This is far easier than trying to cut through the brittle skin first, as the meat below will be meltingly tender and will just get squashed.
I like it just with the accompanying veggies but mashed potatoes are also lovely with it.

This is not the lowest fat meal you can eat, but it's worth every calorie. Eat fruit and salad tomorrow.

Pork Belly