Roast Pork Belly with Fennel
INGREDIENTS
1.5kg pork belly, skin on and scored (ask your butcher to score the skin of the belly, or do it yourself with a Stanley knife, lightly score the skin by making even, 3mm cuts in the skin, 1 cm apart).
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1tbsp fennel seeds, ground
60mls olive oil
1tbsp sea salt and pepper
1 large red onion, roughly sliced
3 heads of fennel, cut into quarters
4 large plum tomatoes, cut in half
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
180mls white wine
100mls water
2 bay leaves
5 sprigs of lemon thyme
sherry vinegar
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 230C.
Rub the crushed garlic and grounded fennel seeds into the flesh of the belly. Turn over, skin side up and rub the olive oil and then the salt into all sides of the pork belly. Place the pork in a 30 x 40cm roasting tin, skin side up. Roast in the oven on the top shelf for 45mins, or until hard crackling starts to form.
Reduce the heat to 180C. Remove the pork from the tin and set aside. Drain off the fat but try and keep the lovely juices in the tin. Add the vegetables, herbs, garlic, wine, water and a splash of vinegar and season lightly. Return the pork to the tin, sitting it on top of the vegetables, skin side up. Cover with foil and cook for a further 2 hours until the meat is tender.
Increase the heat to 220C, remove the foil and roast for a further 20mins to crisp up the crackling. Remove from the oven and set aside until the pork is cool enough to handle. Remove any bones and cut the pork belly into 2cm thick slices.
This is delicious with the roast vegetables and homemade aioli or served cold the next day with a fruit relish/chutney.
RECIPES
Starters
Mains
Desserts