Roast belly pork with apple, sour cherry and fennel chutney

I cut this recipe out from a magazine years ago (yes I’ve apparently been a food nerd for some time now), I made it the other day and it’s so delicious I felt the need to share. I know I know belly pork has become really over exposed in the last few years but it’s still one of my all time favourite cuts. When you cook it slowly you end up with beautifully sticky caramelised meat that falls apart topped with lovely crunchy crackling. Without trying to sound too preachy I will say that if you can’t or won’t buy free range pork at least make it British. You can then be sure the pigs aren’t kept in the inhumane sow pens used widely across Europe. Okay speech over here’s the recipe!

Ingredients

For the pork

2 x 750g pieces pork belly, skin scored

4 star anise

2tbsp fennel seeds

2tbsp paprika

3 dried bay leaves

3tbsp sea salt

For the chutney

40g sour cherries

40ml apple juice

500g Cox’s apples peeled, cored and roughly chopped

1 fennel bulb, finely sliced

1 red onion, sliced

50g fresh ginger, grated

1 red chilli, chopped

1tsp fennel seeds

1tsp coriander seeds

2 star anise

125g demerara sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 190°C/gas mark 5. Place the spices and salt for the meat into a blender, blitz until fairly fine and rub over the meat. 

Place all the chutney ingredients in a roasting tray, cover with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour. Once the time is up, remove the foil and bake uncovered for another 30 minutes. The chutney should become glossy and syrupy. Place to one side and leave to cool. 

Reduce the oven temperature to 160°C/gas mark 3.  Drizzle the skin with a little olive oil making sure to rub it into the scores. Place the pork belly, skin-side up on a rack in a roasting tin. Pour 100ml of water and 100ml of apple into the tin and cook for 3 hours. You can test if the pork is cooked by pushing a fork into the flesh, it should break away easily. 

Once cooked, crank the oven temperature up to 220°C/gas mark 7 and cook the pork for a further 15-20 minutes to crisp up the crackling. If the crackling is being stubborn place it under a hot grill to finish it off. Make sure to keep an eye on it though as it can easily burn.

Once cooked, carve the pork and serve it with the chutney and vegetables of your choice.

Enjoy! x