Slow-Cooked Pork Belly with Sweet, Spicy and Sour Sauce (Torreznos Con Mojo Dulce)

Who doesn’t like slow-cooked, soft pork belly? And if, to something this scrumptious, you add the Mojo Dulce sauce that hundreds of customers in my tapas bars have asked me to bottle and sell, then I think we have a winner.

Ingredients

• 1 kg (2lb 3oz) pork belly

• 1 tbsp rock salt

• 250 ml (1 cup) white wine or beer

• 600 g (1lb 5oz) new potatoes

For the mojo dulce sauce

• 6 dried cayenne or bird’s eye chilli peppers, finely chopped

• 10 g (1 tbsp + 2 tsp) ground cumin

• 10 g (1 tbsp + 2 tsp) sweet pimentón (sweet smoked paprika)

• 10 g (1 tbsp + 2 tsp) black pepper powder

• 5 g (1 tbsp + 2 tsp) ground cinnamon

• 10 g (1/4 cup + 2 tbsp) dried oregano

• 5 g (1 tsp) salt

• 75 ml (1/3 cup) sherry vinegar

• 50 ml (3 1/2 tbsp) extra virgin olive oil

• 150 g (3/4 cup) sugar

Spanish Made Simple by Omar Allibhoy

Directions

Preheat the oven to 160°C/325°F/gas mark 3.

Score the skin of the pork belly by running a sharp knife from side to side. Place in a roasting dish, skin side up, rub with the rock salt and pour the wine or beer around the meat. Slow-cook for 4 hours. Add the new potatoes around the meat in the dish 1 1/2 hours before the end of the cooking time.

To make the Mojo Dulce sauce, first measure all the spices, the oregano and the salt into a small bowl. Measure out the sherry vinegar, olive oil and 200 ml (3/4 cup) water.

Pour another 50 ml (3 1/2 Tbsp) water into a small saucepan over a medium heat and add the sugar. Allow the sugar to melt, without stirring, to make a syrup. When the syrup turns to amber, tip in all the dried spices and give them a good stir for about 10 seconds. The caramel will toast the spices very quickly so don’t leave them any longer. Pour the vinegar, oil and water mixture straight into the pan and keep stirring so that the caramel dissolves. Simmer over a low heat for 10 minutes and then take a hand blender, while the pan is still over the heat, and blitz for 1 minute to emulsify the sauce. Keep the blender away from the heat source.

Serve your pork belly with the roasted new potatoes and pour the thick Mojo Dulce over the top.

NOTE: If you have any leftovers, shred the pork belly, mix it with a bit of the sauce, put some cheese over it and make a really good crusty-bread sandwich.