Pork Belly Roast

ingredients

• 1.5kg pork belly
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 red onions, halved
• 2 carrots, peeled and halved lengthways
• 2 sticks of celery, chopped in half
• 1 bulb of garlic, skin on, broken into cloves
• a small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
• 600ml water or stock

method

The lovely thick layer of fat on this particular cut keeps the meat really moist as it roasts, and also gives you an incredible even layer of delicious crackling. Belly is a very underrated cut in the UK, but it is becoming a favourite on gastropub menus, and rightly so. If you’re worried about scoring the crackling yourself, ask your butcher to do it for you, that’s what he’s there for.Prep time: 10 minutesCook time: 2.5 hoursPreheat your oven to full whack, it needs to be at least 220°C/425°F/gas 7.Place your pork on a clean work surface, skin-side upwards. Get yourself a small sharp knifeand make scores about a centimetre apart through the skin into the fat, but not so deep thatyou cut into the meat. Rub salt right into all the scores you’ve just made, pulling the skin apart a little if you have to. Brush any excess salt off the surface of the skin and turn it over. Season the underside of the meat with a little more salt and a little black pepper. Place your pork, skin side-up, in a roasting tray big enough to hold the pork and the vegetables, and place in the hot oven.Roast for about half an hour until the skin of the pork has started to puff up and you can seeit turning into crackling. Turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and roast for another hour.Take out of the oven and baste with the fat in the bottom of the tray. Carefully lift the pork up and transfer to a chopping board. Add all the veg, garlic and thyme to the tray and stir them into the fat. Place the pork on top of everything and pop the tray back in the oven. Roast for another hour. By this time the meat should be meltingly soft and tender. Carefully move the meat to a serving dish, cover with tin foil and leave to rest whileyou make your gravy.Spoon away any fat in the tray, then add the water or stock and place the tray on the hob.Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon toscrape up all those lovely sticky tasty bits on the bottom of the tray. When you’ve got a nice, dark gravy, pour it through a sieve into a bowl or gravy boat, using your spoon to really push all the goodness of the veg through the sieve. Add a little more salt and pepper if it needs it. Serve the pork with the crackling, gravy, some creamy mashed potato, nice fresh greens and a dollop of English mustard.
The lovely thick layer of fat on this particular cut keeps the meat really moist as it roasts, and also gives you an incredible even layer of delicious crackling. Belly is a very underrated cut in the UK, but it is becoming a favourite on gastropub menus, and rightly so. If you’re worried about scoring the crackling yourself, ask your butcher to do it for you, that’s what he’s there for.

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 2.5 hours

Preheat your oven to full whack, it needs to be at least 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
Place your pork on a clean work surface, skin-side upwards. Get yourself a small sharp knife
and make scores about a centimetre apart through the skin into the fat, but not so deep that
you cut into the meat. Rub salt right into all the scores you’ve just made, pulling the skin apart a little if you have to. Brush any excess salt off the surface of the skin and turn it over. Season the underside of the meat with a little more salt and a little black pepper. Place your pork, skin side-up, in a roasting tray big enough to hold the pork and the vegetables, and place in the hot oven.

Roast for about half an hour until the skin of the pork has started to puff up and you can see
it turning into crackling. Turn the heat down to 180°C/350°F/gas 4 and roast for another hour.
Take out of the oven and baste with the fat in the bottom of the tray. Carefully lift the pork up and transfer to a chopping board. Add all the veg, garlic and thyme to the tray and stir them into the fat. Place the pork on top of everything and pop the tray back in the oven. Roast for another hour. By this time the meat should be meltingly soft and tender. Carefully move the meat to a serving dish, cover with tin foil and leave to rest while
you make your gravy.

Spoon away any fat in the tray, then add the water or stock and place the tray on the hob.
Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to
scrape up all those lovely sticky tasty bits on the bottom of the tray. When you’ve got a nice, dark gravy, pour it through a sieve into a bowl or gravy boat, using your spoon to really push all the goodness of the veg through the sieve. Add a little more salt and pepper if it needs it. Serve the pork with the crackling, gravy, some creamy mashed potato, nice fresh greens and a dollop of English mustard.

Source http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/pork-recipes/pork-belly-roast

Necessary Tips For Bellies Trading

There are three tips you should care when intend to be a belly trader in pork bellies as well as lean hogs.

The first tip is that practicing trade in paper. This is a practical tool that can help you get confidence in the future market. Thanks to this time, you can know some typical symbol like tick size, daily price limits, so that you can be more skillful in using tools in your trading

The second thing you should care is getting advice from a commodity broker. A practical broker will advise you his experience in futures market, he knows which one is good, which one is bad for trading.

The last tip is you educate yourself. No one can help you if you do not try your hard to learn, you can get your own knowledge by getting newsletter on some commodity websites, e books.

These are basic tips I get and would like to share with all of you, hope it can partly help you success in lean hogs options.

Commodity News This Week

U.S. Economy

The U.S. Census Bureau said that wholesale sales were up 1.3% in January and up 10.5% from a year ago. Inventories were down .2% in January and down 9.7% from a year ago.
The U.S. Treasury sold $21 billion of 10-year T-notes at a median yield of 3.70% with a bid-to-cover ratio of 3.45. They also posted a budget deficit of $220.9 billion in February, roughly as expected. The June U.S. T-bonds ended down 4/32nds at 116.10/32nds.
Economists surveyed in the Blue Chip Economic Indicators newsletter said that real GDP will be up 3.1% in 2010 and up 3.0% in 2011.
The Mortgage Bankers' Association said that its index of mortgage applications was up .5% last week. The rate on a 30-year fixed rate mortgage averaged 5.01%.

Grains and Cotton

The USDA's 2009-2010 U.S. ending stocks estimate of:Corn was increased from 1.719 to 1.799 billion bushels.Soybeans was reduced from 210 to 190 million bushels.Wheat was increased from .981 to 1.001 billion bushels.Sugar was increased from 1.055 to 1.075 million tons.Cotton was reduced from 3.3 to 3.2 million bales.
The USDA's 2009-2010 world ending stocks estimate of:Corn was increased from 134 to 140 million tons.Soybeans was increased from 60 to 61 million tons.Wheat was increased from 196 to 197 million tons.Cotton was reduced from 52 to 51 million bales.
The USDA also said today that China bought 110,000 tons of U.S. soybeans for 2010-2011. May soybeans closed up 10.5 cents at $9.58.
A smaller palm oil crop in Malaysia is boosting prices for soybean oil (see article). May soybean oil closed up .72 at 41.02, the highest close in eight weeks.
July wheat fell 7.75 cents to $4.945, the lowest close in five months, after today's increase in the U.S. and world ending stocks estimates.

Livestock

The USDA raised its average 2010 price estimate for choice steers from 88 to 89.5 cents per pound. June cattle closed down .60 at 91.72.
The USDA raised its average 2010 price estimate for barrows and gilts from 47.5 to 48.5 cents per pound. June hogs were up .17 at 80.65.

Orange juice

The USDA raised its estimate of the 2009-2010 Florida orange crop from 129 to 131 million boxes, but lowered the projected juice yield from 1.56 to 1.53 gallons per box at 42.0 degrees Brix. May orange juice was down .0020 at $1.4695.
Sugar May sugar closed down .63 at 19.69, the lowest close in seven months, with more talk that upcoming sugar crops will ease the shortage. Brazil's sugarcane harvest is due to begin at the end of this month.

Energies

OPEC's monthly Oil Market Report shows an increase in the 2010 world oil demand estimate from 85.12 to 85.24 million barrels per day. Yesterday, the U.S. Energy Department predicted 85.5 million barrels per day. May crude oil finished up .57 at $82.43.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) said that crude oil supplies were up 1.4 million barrels last week to 343.0 million barrels. Supplies of gasoline were down 2.9 million barrels and heating oil supplies were down 500,000 barrels.
The DOE also said that refinery use fell from 81.9% to 80.7% of capacity last week. Over the past four weeks, gasoline demand was up .5% from a year ago while distillate demand was down 4.1% from a year ago.


Metals


April gold fell $14.20 to $1,108.10, blamed on technical selling.


Currencies


The U.K.'s Office for National Statistics said that its index of production was down .4% in January and down 1.5% from a year ago.
Japan's Cabinet Office said that machinery orders were down 3.7% in January. The March Japanese yen dropped .0070 to 1.1047.
Is world trade improving? China's government said that exports were up 46% in February from a year ago while imports were up 45%.

Source: http://www.dailyfutures.com/