Another Nopi Nosh Night - Starting with Roasted Pork Belly (Page 193)

Enough with the midweek half-arsed attempts to knock up a Nopi dish with what was in the cupboards and with time constraints. It was time to invite the family around and do justice to some of the winter-warmer dishes I had been drooling over earlier in the year.

What beetter dish to celebrate the first days of winter (even if it's only a Perth winter) that the Roasted Pork Belly with Crushed Butternut Squash and Apple and Walnut Salsa. I went the whole hog and bought the whole 1.5kg slab of pork belly specified in the recipe (remembering wistfully when pork belly was a cheap, budget cut)

The pork was prepared and placed on a bed of garlic (12 cloves!) ginger, thyme and lemongrass. 

I followed the complicated instructions for getting a good crackle, using a lemon to rub the skin, and an insane amount of salt and cranked up the oven as high as it would go but after all the scraping salt off and putting more salt on, etc, the crackling was disappointing.

Halfway though cooking, 500ml of white wine was poured into the base of the pan. I was very afraid it would be dried out after the long cooking time at what I thought was rather a hot oven for slow cooking but it turned out very tasty indeed. The cooking liquid can apparently be used as a base for a soup or stew so naturally I'll be doing that some day. The aroma was divine.

Butternut pumpkin cut up ready for baking, and butter and miso paste mixed with rice vinegar, to be added after cooking

Meanwhile, the butternut squash aka pumpkin was prepared and after that was baked, mashed up with the butter, rice vinegar and white miso paste. With the children and fussy guests in mind, I only added the extras to some of the pumpkin but it was still only mildly more interesting than regular baked pumpkin.

Ingredients ready to make the Apple and Walnut salsa

Just need to dice the apple and combine ingredients. Too easy

The walnut and apple salsa, however, was a tangy and tasty accompaniment, and easy to prepare. The pickled walnuts added some zip and a challenge to the suspicious guest, who'd rather have had regular gravy.

First course, minus the pumpkin, which after all just looked like pumpkin. The photographer was hungry!

It was served with the Baby Carrots and Parmesan with Truffle Vinaigrette, which I have made before, and Broccolini with Skordalia.  To follow, Ricotta Fritters with Star Anise Sugar, Chocolate Soil and Blackberry Sauce