After some success with low temperature cooking sous vide style with my Raspberry Pi controlled water bath I had a go today at doing slow roasted pork belly[1], which came out well. After some questions on twitter I though I’d go through the standard recipes and techniques I use for the rest of the meal.

Some of the crackling might make it to a sandwich tomorrow

My cooking style is very scientific – keep to the right weights, measures, timings and temperatures and things will come out fine every time. Here’s how I do my roasties (roast potatoes), yorkies (Yorkshire puddings), stuffing[2] and veggies:

t-70m peel and chop potatoes – I usually allow for 6 roasties per person.

pour oil into a roasting tin for potatoes, and a little into each cup of a 12 cup yorkie tray, grease a small roasting tray for the stuffing

t-60m turn fan oven onto full power (~240C[3]), put potatoes into a pan of hot tap water and place to boil on a large gas ring

prepare batter for yorkies: 125g strong white bread flour, 235g[4] milk, 3 eggs whisk until smooth
prepare stuffing – half a pack of paxo (~90g) with a bit less than the specified amount of water (~240g)

t-48m put roasting tin for potatoes into oven to warm

t-45m drain potatoes, shake together to fluff surface, put into roasting tin, make sure potatoes are covered in oil then place in oven

prepare veggies (usually carrots and broccoli) and place in pan of hot tap water

t-33m put yorkie tin into oven

t-30m pour yorkie batter into yorkie tin and place in oven, turn down to 180C

place stuffing onto small roasting tin

t-25m put stuffing into oven

t-20m turn on large ring gas under veggies

t-15m turn oven up to 200C

put plates and serving bowls into microwave to warm up (~5m)

t-2m make gravy using Bisto granules and water from veggies[5]

t-0 service!

Notes

[1] After scoring and rubbing salt into the skin I put a 1.2kg on the bone pork belly into a non fan oven at 130C starting at t-4hrs. At t-60m it went into the hot fan oven to crisp the cracking, and at t-30m it came out to rest and make space for the yorkies. I took the cracking off and put it back in the oven with everything else.
[2] Traditionally yorkies are only served with roast beef, and stuffing is only served with poultry, but I love both (and so do the rest of the family) so we have them every time. $daughter0 insists on having mint sauce every time too.
[3] If using a regular oven then add around 20C throughout
[4] I don’t bother with liquid measures in jugs or whatever, everything gets measured by mass on a set of electronic scales
[5] Or use left over (frozen) gravy from previous pot roast