Pork belly and potatoes baked in milk

Method

• step 1

  Heat the oven to 240C/fan 220C/gas 9. Season the pork all over and put it in a medium-sized roasting tin or shallow casserole dish. You want the pork to have a little space all around (about 6-8cm) in order to fit in the potatoes, but not too much or when you add the milk it won’t cover the meat enough to gently poach it.
  Slide the pork into the oven and roast it for 40 minutes until the skin has started to crisp nicely. Cook for another 10 minutes if the skin hasn’t started to crisp up. Remove from the oven, and reduce the temperature to 150C/fan 130C/gas 2.

• step 2

  Gently pour the milk around the pork – it should come well up the sides of the meat but not go over the top of the skin. Tuck in the bay leaves and garlic cloves and sprinkle in the paprika, seasoning with a little more salt and pepper. Put the pork back in the oven and cook for 45 minutes.

• step 3

  Slice the potatoes in half lengthways, then each half again, so you get 4 slim wedges. Once the pork has had its initial poach in the milk, remove from the oven and add the potato wedges, pressing them down gently so that they are under the surface of the milk as much as possible.
  Slide back into the oven and cook for a further 1 hour 15 minutes, by which time the potatoes should be tender and the milk pretty much absorbed (you can spoon away any excess milk if it doesn’t all soak up). Give the potatoes a stir a couple of times during cooking to make sure they’re cooking evenly – the top layer of potatoes will develop a lovely golden crust as the milk absorbs and evaporates.

• step 4

  To serve, cut the pork into thick slices and spoon the potatoes around it.