Hurrah. For anyone not living in the UK, I am happy to tell you, summer is finally here. And that, for us Brits, means a speedy dash to the nearest shop, to buy charcoal and sausages and fire up the BBQ. The papers tell us sales of Pimms are up by 90%, and sales of rose, salad and BBQ meats are on the rise. Oh yes and Andy Murray won Wimbledon.
That aside, this post is devoted to another BBq recipe, from the current masters of BBQ – Pitt Cue. Now Pitt Cue was started by a couple of enterprising chefs, who wanted to bring American BBQ to London but rather than wasting time trying to raise capital through backers, they bought a van and parked it under Hungerford Bridge, capitalising on the food from a van phenomenon sweeping through London. A restaurant site soon followed and while I have not been there yet myself I have only heard good things. So I was utterly thrilled when some friends gave me their cookbook as a birthday present and just before we headed off to France for a short break.
My husband was delighted as he leafed through it and proclaimed ” this is how to BBQ”. There are pages and pages of technical BBQ instructions with copious notes on types of wood to use and how to smoke meat. This made us realise our supermarket charcoal efforts don’t quite cut the mustard.
We trialled a few recipes from the book and one of my favourites was the Belly Chop recipe as below. It was amended slightly by us but I note below what we changed from the original recipe. I adore pork belly & cooking belly chops works just as well with the deliciously tender meat and the crispy fatty naughtiness!
Belly Chops (Serves 4) – Requires overnight marinating
What you need
1.5Kg of pork belly rib.(so has the fatty bits and bone and meat rather than just the meat and bone like a tradional spare rib). See if your butcher can take the skin off in one piece and give it to you seperately.
Couple of sprigs of Rosemary
Rub
1 tsp of the following (whole spices)
Cumin
Celery Seeds
Chilli Flakes
Star Anise
Smoked Paprika
Coriander Seeds
Mustard Seeds
20g of the following (whole spices)
Fennel Seeds
Black Peppercorns
Marinade
75g of the rub (above)
100ml Veg oil
25 ml Tabasco (the recipe says 100ml, but that is a lot of Tabasco!)
100g English Mustard
100g Maldon Sea Salt
100ml Cider
100g Maple Syrup
100ml Molasses (we used honey)
100g Apricot Preserve.
What to do
Heat the oven to 180C. Put all the whole spices in a baking tray and roast for 10 mins. Then use a blender or pestle and mortar to grind them to a fine powder.
Put all the marinade ingredients in a bowl and mix. Remove the skin from the pork belly and add to the marinade. Rub the ribs with the marinade and put in fridge overnight.
The next day, when ready to cook, remove the ribs from the marinade, keeping all juices. Pop ribs on BBQ and smoke for 6-7 hours. Alternatively, you can slow cook them in the oven, at 130C for 30-45 mins over a simmering tray of water (ensure the ribs are covered in foil).
Meanwhile reduce the remaining marinade/ juices slightly and re-baste the meat. Allow to cool.
To finish, prep the BBQ for direct grilling and grill for approx 2 mins on each side,using the rosemary springs to baste the meat with the marinade as it cooks.
Serve hot. We ate these with an apple and cabbage coleslaw (recipe to follow) and potato salad, accompanied by a chilled Provencal Rose.
Gastronomic Delights 