Crispy Milk Braised Pork Belly

The key to great pork crackling is to ensure your pork rind is perfectly dry for maximum crackling. Blasting the pork in a very hot oven to begin with to get the skin crunchy, then slow cook it for a further 90 minutes in a bath of spiced milk (inspired by the Italian classic maiale all latte or pork in milk), which makes it really moist and tender. For the crispiest crackling, make sure you don’t splash milk on the rind when you add it. You can roast some potato wedges with the pork to help soak up the milk. Alternatively, serve them with a simple mashed potato or polenta to absorb the milk sauce. I served the pork belly with a radicchio salad tossed with a red wine vinegrette (Thank you, David, for this great idea), and used the milk to bake some bread
©angiesrecipes.


1-1.2 kg Pork belly, skin scored 1½ tsp Sea salt Freshly milled black pepper Lard or chicken schmaltz 1 head Garlic, halved A few sage leaves 2 tsp Fennel seeds 750 ml 3.5% Milk

Preheat oven to 240C/460F. Pat the skin of the pork belly really dry and season the flesh side with pepper and half the salt.
Place pork belly, skin side up, in a 28-32cm x 25cm metal baking tray. Rub the pork belly skin with lard or schmaltz. Rub the remaining sea salt into scored skin. Roast for 25-35 minutes or until skin starts to blister.
Remove the tray from the oven. Reduce oven temperature to 180C/350F. Carefully pour the milk around the meat to come about half to two thirds of the way up the sides of the pork. Add garlic halves, sage and fennel seeds to milk. Roast for a further 1½ hours or until the meat is meltingly tender. If the skin needs more crisping, turn the grill on for 5 minutes but watch like a hawk as it can quickly catch and burn.
Remove the pork from the oven, lift it out of the tray and transfer to a plate. Discard the excess liquid. You can roast some potato wedges with the pork belly to soak up the milk. Set aside to rest for 10-15 minutes before carving.