Pork Belly Tempura

Being Norwegian, well...half, one of our main food groups is basically pork belly, it's the best thing we do at Christmas and so many our heart-stoppingly unhealthy recipes so I will one day share. With Eurovision being on this month and Norway's constitution day on the 17th I just had the need to buy some. I did however want to do it with a twist.

Last year I had at meal at CAU in Cambridge, which was brilliant might I add and I had the best every starter in the world - pork belly tempura. Take the most fattening thing you can think of, cover it in batter, and then deep-fry it. What can be wrong about that? Answer? NOTHING!

I popped down to Waitrose for cheeky trips of pork belly and the ingredient for the tempura and polished up my favourite plate from the Pip Studio range so that I could pretend that I'm really Gizzi Erskine and that everything I make is gold, naturall, or at least style it like I can.

It was actually pretty easy to make, not having a deep fat fryer I got the wok and sugar thermometer out which worked absolutely fine, I filled it not even half way up and that's all I needed, just so that the pork pieces were covered. 

The batter mix makes loads so I did halve it straight away, I also bought 3 long strips of pork belly so that worked out great. I seasoned the pork heavily with salt and pepper before chopping up into 1inch pieces and dunking it in the batter and lowering it in the hot oil (be careful!).

The result? Gorgeous, not something I would suggest to eat every single day, not if you want to live over the age of 40 that is. But it really is good, remember to place them on some kitchen roll before plating up to avoid lots of excess oil.

Ingredients:

• Pork belly
• Salt & pepper
• 100 gr corn flour
• 150 gr plain flour
• 10gr baking powder
• enough iced perrier or soda water to make batter (should coat your finger.)

Method:

1. Season the pork belly and cut into 1 inch pieces.

2. Mix the flours together.

3. Add iced liquid and briefly stir just to get the lumps out.

4. Dip the pork into the batter and place in hot oil

5. cook for about 5 minutes until golden.

6. Eat!

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