CHEF and blogger Paul James writes for our paper.
OUR stay recently in the beautiful and picturesque harbour of Kassiopi has been one of more memories to savour.
Jay, my son, on his first visit here was absolutely blown away with the friendliness of the people of Kassiopi. In fact I think he only left the town once and that was because I dragged him on a boat trip.
For me it’s been a very emotional seven days, this was the place I created ‘Recipes from my travels’ and since then little over two years ago I have made some truly beautiful and amazing friends here.
To be greeted by people who I’ve never met before when walking down the street of Kassiopi by “’you’re that bloke who’s on the blog’ is totally humbling and heart-warming.
I even sat down on the balcony of our apartment and posted a video of me making a Greek salad that received over 5,000 views on my Facebook page.
The two dishes I’ve made for you are inspired by a couple of food reviews that I was asked to do.
The first was a Corfiot salad made by my good friend and head chef at the Limani bar, Babis Vlachos and the next dish of slow roasted barbecue pork belly which was kindly served to me by the lovely owner at ‘Thraka Greek Barbecue’.
I’ve put these two dishes together because the sweetness of the salad marries so well with the slightly fatty belly pork.
I hope my two friends back in Kassiopi approve of my versions of their dishes.
Visit recipesfrommytravels.com for more on Paul’s blogs and recipes.
Greek belly pork with a Corfiot salad
Ingredients
For the pork
Pork belly
Bunch rosemary
Bunch of thyme
Oregano
1 tbsp Greek olive oil
1 Greek flaked sea salt
Pinch of cracked pepper
Lemon slices
1 clove of garlic
For the Corfiot salad
Mixed salad leaves
Greek honey and mustard dressing
Walnuts
Vine tomatoes quartered
Olives pitted
Method
1. In a pestle and mortar add the rosemary, thyme, oregano and the oil and mix well.
2. Spread over the belly pork, making sure you massage the flavoured oil into every part of the meat. Add a crushed clove of garlic on top and a couple of slices of lemon.
3. Leave on a covered tray overnight or for at least eight hours in the refrigerator to soak up these beautiful aromatic Mediterranean flavours.
4. Remove from the fridge and let the belly pork come to room temperature.
5. Pre-heat oven to 180c
6. Add sea salt and cracked black pepper to the pork and cover with foil.
7. Place in the oven and reduce the temperature to 120c and cook slowly for three hours.
8. Remove foil from the tray and turn the oven up to 180c for 20minutes or until the pork fat gets nice and crispy.
9. Remove from the oven and rest while you make your sweet Corfiot salad.
10. In a bowl add the salad leaves, dressing, olives, walnuts and tomatoes.
11. Mix well and season to taste.
12. Serve on a plate with the juicy and succulent Greek belly pork.
