Smoked salt-crusted pork with lentils and caper sauce
- Preparation and cooking time
- Total time
- Easy
- serves 6
Ingredients
- 2 kg boneless pork belly, scored well with a sharp knife
- 1 tbsp smoked sea salt
- olive oil
braised lentils
- 4 shallots, finely chopped
- 1 stalk celery, finely chopped
- 1 carrot, finely chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- a few sprigs thyme
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 300g Puy lentils
- light chicken stock
- a handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped
caper sauce
- a small bunch of each basil, parsley and mint, leaves only
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 150ml olive oil
Method
- STEP 1
Heat the oven to 220C/fan 200C/gas 7. Put the pork in the sink skin-side up and pour over a kettleful of boiling water – this will make the skin crackle better. Leave to drain then pat completely dry. Rub all over with olive oil and sprinkle over the sea salt. Put on a rack in a roasting tin and put in the oven for 30 minutes. Turn the oven down to 160C/fan 140C/gas 3 and cook for 3 hours. In the meantime, make the lentils and the sauce.
- STEP 2
To make the lentils, heat a slug of oil in a heavy pan and gently cook the veg, garlic and thyme until just soft. Add the red wine vinegar and lentils. Add enough stock to just cover, then bring to a gentle simmer. Simmer until tender but with a litle bite – add a splash more stock if needed. Stir in the parsley. to make the caper sauce, whizz the ingredients in a food processor, adding the olive oil as you go. Carve the pork and serve with the lentils and caper sauce.
