Braised Pork

Ingredients

• 850g pork belly
• 80g shallot (2) or onion (½)
• 100g carrot (2)
• 60g celery (1 stick)
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 sprig of thyme
• 1 bay leaf
• 500ml cider
• 500ml chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• greaseproof paper

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 2 hours
Serves: 4

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°c.
2. Peel the carrots and shallots and chop them with the celery into roughly 2cm pieces.
3. Lightly crush each clove of garlic still in their skins.
4. Remove the skin from the pork meat, roll up the pork and tie it with string.
5. Heat the oil in a frying pan, season the pork with salt & pepper and fry it until it is brown all over (Tip: use barbeque tongs to turn the meat over).
6. Remove the pork from the pan, put in the carrot, celery and onion and fry them for 2 minutes.
7. Put the vegetables into a pot large enough to hold the pork (the pot must have a lid) and put the pork on top of them. Then put in the herbs and pour in the cider and stock.
8. Place a piece of greaseproof paper larger than the diameter of the pot on top of the liquid and put the lid on.
9. Put the dish into the oven and cook it for 2 hours.
10. Remove the dish from the oven, take the pork out of the dish, and pour the liquid through a sieve into another pan, discarding the vegetables.
11. Put the pan over a high heat and boil the sauce until it has reduced by a quarter (about 5 minutes). If the sauce is too thin, thicken it with some beurre manié or any other commercial thickener.
12. Cut the pork into thick slices and serve. We served it with a parsley mash potato and sautéed savoy cabbage. We garnished it with a piece of crackling made by roasting the skin in an oven at 250°c for 20 minutes before turning the oven down to 200° and roasting it for a further 1 hour.

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Useful Information

Can it be frozen? Yes.
Can it be prepared in advance? Yes, it can be finished up to 2 days in advance.
Will leftovers be nice? Yes, for up to 3 days.

Notes