Ingredients

• piece of pork belly (500g)
• handful of salt
• drizzle of olive oil
• 2-3 root vegetables, roughly chopped
• handful of thyme & rosemary
• 1 spring green
• 2 small red apples
• 2 baking potatoes
• knob of butter
• splash of milk
• chicken stock cube
• gravy of choice to serve.
  
  

Recipe

preheat an oven to 160°C.
place the pork belly on a board and score the skin into the fat, but not as far as the meat about 1cm apart.
massage the salt into the skin and leave for half an hour in fridge.
take pork out of fridge and pat dry with a kitchen towel to remove salt and water that’s been drawn out.
put the chopped vegetables into a deep roasting tray with the herbs, crumbled stock cube and plenty of boiling water to half fill the tin.
place the pork into the tin so the skin it sticking out of the stock and cook for about 2 hours until the meat is tender.
remove the roasting tin from the oven after 2 hours and turn it up to 220°C.
slice the skin off of the pork and lay it on a dry baking tray to return to the very hot oven to crisp up. Keep the stock for another use!!!
peel and roughly dice the potatoes and put into a saucepan with cold salted water, bring to boil and simmer for 10 minutes.
put a pan of salted water on to boil for the spring greens.
core and finely dice the apples, with skin on, and add to the boiling potatoes then cook for another 10 minutes, until both are soft.
slice the spring greens and cook in boiling salted water for a few minutes until cooked and drain.
drain the potatoes and apples and mash with butter and a splash of milk.
hack up the now golden and crispy crackling.
carve the pork belly into 2 and serve each with plenty of mash, spring greens a shard of crackling and gravy.

serves 2