Honey roast pork

Fit for a king!
I found this recipe here, but I adjusted it a little bit.

Time of preparation: 2 hours
serves 6-8

1kg pork belly (or any other cut that roasts and crackles|)

I used ginger chopped like match sticks (as much as you like)
cloves (a bunch, about a handful)
1 tbsp cracked coriander seeds
340g runny honey
1 stock cube
4 medium brown onions
1 bunch of sage
4 bay leaves
Olive oil
Rock Salt
200ml cold water

Preparation

Stab the pork with a sharp long knife and place cloves and the match stick like ginger in the meat. Rub a little olive oil into the pork and season with salt. Place the pork on to a wire tray and then place into the roasting dish. Roast in the oven for approximately 2hrs on the bottom shelf at 160C.

Meanwhile, make the honey glaze by adding the rest of the water, honey, coriander seeds, and 1 stock cube to a saucepan and simmer until reduced by a third. The mixture will thicken and become syrupy

Cut the root off of the onions and cut in half (take the outer skins off if preferred). Add a little sunflower oil to a frying pan, heat then place the onions in the pan flat side down. Add the bay leaves, sage and leave for a few minutes until they start to brown and caramelize. Then place the pan in the oven for 25 minutes until onions are golden brown.

To serve, using a pastry brush glaze the pork with the honey reduction. Then slice lengthwise into (about 1in wide) and arrange onto a large plate. Place the roasted onions around the meat and garnish with the roasted sage leaves.

In the recipe, the chef makes his own gravy, but since I prefer to use rock salt the juices that run from the meat are too salty and I prefer to use regular gravy that I buy at the supermarket.

It was absolutely delicious for a New Year's dish!

Brazilian honey cake (pao-de-mel)

Time of preparation: 1 hour

Dough:

3 cups of flour

1 cup of honey

1 cup of sugar

1 cup of milk

2 tbspoons of butter at room temperature

2 eggs

1 tbspoon of baking soda

1 tspoon of ground nutmeg

1 tspoon of ground cloves

1 tbspoon of ground cinnamon

butter and flour to cover the baking tray

Cover

300g of cooking chocolate

3 tbspoons of butter

Line a rectangular baking tray with butter and flour. Pre-heat the oven (medium: 180 degrees)

In a big mixing bowl add the sugar, honey, butter and eggs. Mix it very well (preferably with a mixer). Repeatedly add one cup of flour and 1/3 of the milk, always mixing. After the last cup, stop mixing. Add the baking soda and the spices and mix them delicately.
Put the cake mixture into the baking tray. Bake it for 15min in a medium oven and then lower the heat as much as possible and bake it for some 20-40 min more (depending on the oven). To make sure it is done, stab it with a toothpick or a fork. If it comes out clean, it is done. Let it cool down and turn it out onto a plate. Cover the cake with the chocolate cover.

Cover:

Put water in a pan and heat it. When it boils lower the heat. Put the broken up chocolate into a glass bowl and put the bowl in the water. Add 3 spoons of butter. Mix the chocolate with the butter untill completely dissolved (around 4 minutes). When melted, spread over the cake with the help of a round edge knife.

If you want it in little cubes (my favourite way), cut the cake, and use 2 times the amount of ingredients for the cover. Stab each cube with a toothpick and dunk it into the chocolate (fondue style).

Let it cool on top of grease proof paper or aluminum foil lined with butter