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Ingredients
- 500 g pork belly - get your butcher to score the top of it
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 1 tbsp maldon sea salt
- 1 carrot
- 1 stick celery
- a few springs of thyme
- a few cloves garlic
- half red onion, sliced
- 200 g brown lentils (I used Italian mountain lentils but green or puy would be good too)
- 1 bottle of dry cider
Preparation
Step 1
Preheat the oven to to 250 degrees.
Grind the fennel seeds and salt in a pestle and mortar and rub all over the pork belly. You might need to pat the pork belly dry with some kitchen paper first.
Chop the vegetables coarsely, leave the thyme and garlic whole. Place all in a lightly oiled roasting dish and place the pork belly on top. Make sure the meat covers the veg or they will burn.
Roast for 20 minutes then reduce to 150 degrees and roast for a further 2 hours.
Remove the pork from the oven, it will be crisping nicely by now and add the lentils. Add enough cider to cover the lentils generously and put back in the oven for a further hour or until the lentils are cooked. You’ll need to stir the lentil occasionally and add more liquid if you need to.
Remove from the oven and rest the meat for 5 minutes.
Slice and serve the lentils without the veg with the pork belly on top.
(note: I left the veg in for lunch but that was because I was rushed! The veg really loses it’s flavour over the lengthy cooking process, you just need it to flavour the lentils and the juices)