Jo Pratt's mouthwatering slow cooked pork dish is served with tasty cider gravy and apple mash. A British classic.
Ingredients
For the pork:
- 1½ kg3¼ lb piece of boneless pork belly, scored every 1cm or so with the tip of a very sharp knife (If you’re worried about scoring the fat yourself, ask your butcher to do it for you).
- Olive oil for drizzling
- 2 tsp flaked sea salt
- 2 large onions, peeled and thickly sliced
- 2 celery stalks, thickly sliced
- 1 large carrot, thickly sliced
- 2 thyme stalks
- 400 ml14 fl oz cider
- 2 tbsp runny honey
For the mash:
- 4 large potatoes, such as Maris Piper, peeled and quartered
- 2 medium cooking apples, peeled, cored and roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled
- 25 g1 oz butter
- 100 ml3½ fl oz cream
To serve:
- Runner beans - sliced, steamed and buttered
Method: How to make Slow-roast pork belly with cider gravy and apple mash
Pre-heat the oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4.
Place the pork, skin side up in a roasting tray then rub in the salt, making sure it goes between the score lines. Place in the oven for 1 ½ hours.
Lift the pork from the tray and scatter in the onions, celery, carrot and thyme. Sit the pork on top. Return to the oven and cook for a further 1 hour. By now the meat should be meltingly soft and the skin wonderfully crisp. You can continue to roast the pork if you want the skin even crispier.
To make the mash, place the potatoes in a pan of cold salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes. Add the apples and garlic and continue to boil for about 5-8 minutes until the potatoes and apples are tender. Drain well, mash with the butter and cream, and season with salt and pepper. Cover with cling film and keep hot.
Transfer the pork to a board to rest, covered loosely with foil. Spoon away any excess fat from the roasting tray, and place the tray over a high heat on the hob. Add the cider, stock, and honey and bring to the boil, scraping any sticky residue from the base of the tray. Season to taste and strain through a sieve, pushing all of the flavour through with the base of a ladle.
Cut the pork into four pieces, and serve with the mash, gravy and steamed and buttered runner beans.
