I have to tell you that I’m awfully glad it’s the weekend. I miss Robert when he’s far away and he misses us. Going out in the dark of the morning and not coming back until the dark of the evening.

But it could be worse, he may not have a job at all so I’m thankful that he goes out each day to something that he enjoys doing. And it makes the weekends extra special as we’re together as a fam!

Roasted Pork Belly with Crackling is something that we have a lot of in the Autumn months. It somehow seems most appropriate at this time as opposed to any other in the year. I couldn’t imagine having it in the Summer for instance. Does that make any sense at all?

And crackling, once you get the hang of it, is very easy.

• Ask your butcher for Pork Belly – a big enough piece to feed the amount of people you’ll be having for the meal
• Score the fat length ways across the top of the fat but not piercing the meat
• Then dry the piece of meat off as much as you can using kitchen roll. Blot it, rub it and get as much moisture out of the joint as you can until it feels dry to the touch
• Rub salt over the meat, I use rock salt, making sure that it goes in to the scored fat. If you’re using rock salt you can easily knock it off after cooking
• Place the joint in the top of the oven at the highest temperature possible
• Listen as the joint begins to sizzle and spit
• Lower the oven to 180c / 350f and drop the joint to the bottom of the oven when you can see that the fat on the joint has hardened and therefore become crackling. Tap it with the back of a spoon and see if it sounds almost hollow. If it does all over then you can drop the meat.
• Cook for a further thirty minutes or until the meat is cooked but not dry inside and serve with apple sauce.
• The absolute key to getting the crackling right is drying off the meat and putting it in to a very hot oven at first. It needs a good blasting to get the crackling going. No oil is needed. Just salt.

Love it. Want it now. May have to make some more just so I can take it behind the sofa and eat it all  myself.

My roast of choice for this Halloween weekend.

My family and I will be outside again as much as possible if the weather allows. Ned and Anaïs love it outside. And I mean they REALLY LOVE IT. They love the outside much more than the inside, which can be troubling, as occasionally we really do have to retreat to the living room. When the temperature drops to below freezing or when it gets very dark for instance.

Anaïs loves it especially.

She comes alive outside.

She’s not great at being trussed up like a chicken and gets very hot and extremely bothered if she has too many clothes on.

But when she is outside she sings.

Literally.

She is singing here with such earnestness and sounds like a Mogwai Gremlin. So delicious that I have to clench my teeth *again* and just sit and watch her. She’ll go on for ages and ages.

Which is fine if conditions allow as it’s one of my all time favourite sounds.

It’s Friday…….

And I’m in love.

I love you too and thank you for reading. Have a wonderful spooky Halloween weekend and I’ll see you Monday.

Cherry x

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Cherry Menlove

Related posts:

1. Baked Pork in Plum Sauce
2. The Stuff of Life # 13 – Hanging Out at the Weekend
3. How To Line A Hanging Basket & Playing With Ornamental Cabbages
4. Slow Cooked Leg of Lamb
5. How To Make A Classic Beef & Onion Meat Pie

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