Smoked salt-crusted pork with lentils and caper sauce
Pork belly, braised lentils and caper sauce: gastro pub-style comfort food. Put them all together in this weekend lunch recipe: designed to make everyone feel glad to be at home.
- 2 kg boneless pork bellyscored well with a sharp knife
- 1 tbsp smoked sea salt
- olive oil
braised lentils
- 4 shallotsfinely chopped
- 1 stalk celeryfinely chopped
- 1 carrotfinely chopped
- 2 cloves garliccrushed
- a few sprigs thyme
- 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
- 300g Puy lentils
- light chicken stock
- a handful flat-leaf parsleychopped
caper sauce
- a small bunch of each basil, parsley and mintleaves only
- 2 cloves garlic
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 2 tbsp capersrinsed and drained
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 150ml olive oil
Nutrition: per serving
- kcal866
- fat55.2g
- saturates0g
- carbs24.8g
- sugars0g
- fibre7.1g
- protein67g
- salt3.2g
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.