They say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. This Father's Day, we get Singapore's most dude-friendly restaurants and bars to share their recipes for indulgent meat feasts, manly drinks and other creative mash-ups that you can recreate at home as a very special treat for Dad.
About the chef
Born in France to Italian-Spanish parents, Jean-Philippe Patruno of London's Barrafina fame has brought his unwavering commitment to whole animal usage to Singapore via Dehesa. The convivial nose-to-tail eatery along Singapore's North Canal Road offers an unashamedly brazen dining experience through an innovative spread of alternative- and classic-cut specialities and delicious offal delicacies.
For the third recipe in our 5-part series, we unravel the golden, crackling goodness behind chef Patruno's classic Roasted Pork Belly.
What makes this perfect for Father's Day
"The whole pork belly is an incredibly versatile cut. It’s juicy and crispy, and best of all, it’s forgiving to amateur cooks. It’s the ultimate dude cut that both the young and old will love.
Hung for a week or so, the dry skin will produce the perfect crackling. This is one of my favourite cuts with an abundance of fat that melts during cooking to protect and give extra flavours to the meat. Alternatively, salt and hang the pork belly to make fantastic pancetta, or stuff and roll it to get porcetta. Keep the bones in and slice them for short ribs, or remove the bones and roast with BBQ sauce.
I usually start it in the oven and finish it on the barbecue, smoked a little at the end, before serving it in the middle of the table, in its juice, with bread, roasted potatoes and greens. If you have some leftovers, they are amazing the next day. I like to have them cold, straight out of the fridge, with some mayonnaise," says chef Patruno.
Roasted Pork Belly
Ingredients
- Whole pork belly with skin on (hang or air-dried for a week)
- Cumin seeds
- Celery seeds
- Smoked paprika
- Black peppercorn
- Fennel seeds
- 3 head of garlic cut in half (not peeled)
- 2 sprigs of rosemary
- Thyme leaves
- 2 carrots
- 2 onions
- 1 fennel bulb
- 3 Roma tomatoes
- 1 lemon cut in half
- Good olive oil
Method:
- Heat the oven to 180ºC
- Roast all the spices for around 5 minutes, then grind them
- Wash all the vegetables (you don't have to peel them) and cut them before putting them on the bottom of the roasting tray
- Rub the flesh of the pork belly with all the ground spice, rub the skin with olive oil and a good pinch of Maldon sea salt
- Now put a wire rack on top of the vegetables, and put the pork belly skin side up. Ensure it does not touch the bottom of the tray. Pour some water onto the tray, and cook at 180ºC for about 2 hours then reduce to 160ºC for the last 45 minutes
- When you remove the tray from the oven, you will find that the cooking juice will have mixed with the water and the vegetables, resulting in a delicious gravy
- Leave to cool for 20 minutes, then cut and enjoy the beautiful crackling sound as you cut into it
