Bagnet

Pork belly boiled, air-dried, then fried three separate times so the skin shatters.

Pork. Not vegetarian — contains pork.

Ingredients

• 2 kg pork belly, in one piece, skin on
• 2 tablespoons salt
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 head garlic, halved across
• oil, for deep frying

Method

1. THREE SEPARATE FRIES WITH A REST BETWEEN EACH. This is the whole difference from the lechon kawali and crispy pata already on this site, which are fried once or twice. Three goes, each one hotter, with the meat cooling fully in between, drives the water out of the skin in stages and leaves it so brittle it shatters under a knife rather than crackling.
2. Boil the belly in water with the salt, bay, peppercorns and garlic, covered, 1 hour 30 minutes, until a skewer goes into the meat with no resistance but the skin still holds.
3. Lift it out and let it drain and cool, 30 minutes.
4. NOW DRY IT. Pat it hard with paper, then leave it uncovered on a rack in the fridge for at least 6 hours, better overnight. Skin with water still in it spits violently and fries to leather instead of glass.
5. Prick the skin all over with a fork, not through to the meat.
6. FIRST FRY at 150C, 12 minutes, until pale and the skin has tightened. Out onto a rack, 20 minutes, until cold to the touch.
7. SECOND FRY at 170C, 8 minutes, until gold. Out onto the rack again, another 20 minutes cold.
8. THIRD FRY at 190C, 3 to 4 minutes. The skin blisters all over and lifts away from the fat beneath it. Lift it out the moment the blistering stops spreading.
9. Rest 10 minutes, then chop through with a heavy knife in one stroke per cut. Sawing crushes the skin you have spent a day making.
10. Eat with vinegar, crushed garlic and chopped tomato.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

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