Pork belly
- 750g pork belly
- 1 x 250g ring black pudding, finely sliced
- 20g flour, for dusting
- 80-100g fresh breadcrumbs
- 2 free-range eggs
- 100ml rapeseed oil
Apple purée
- 2 Bramley apples, peeled, cores removed, finely chopped
- 50g caster sugar
- 1 level dessert spoon English mustard, or to taste
Fennel garnish
- 1 whole bulb of fennel
- 50g Frisse salad
- Halen Mon Celery Salt
- Juice of 1 lemon combined to make simple dressing
- 50ml of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Method
Pork belly
Preheat oven to 140°C
Place the pork into a large roasting tray. Add water to halfway up the sides. Cut out a rectangle of greaseproof paper the size of the belly and cover it. Seal the pan with a double layer of foil and cook for 8 hours, until tender. When the pork is cooked, carefully remove and partially cool, fat-side up. Reserve the cooking liquid.
Remove the skin and discard. Remove and reserve the fat. Pick the belly meat from the bones and mix the fat, which will keep it moist when you reheat it.
Arrange one third of the black pudding slices side-by-side on a baking tray. Add a 1cm layer of belly meat. Top with black pudding, followed by the pork and more black pudding. Repeat the process until 5cm thick.
Wrap cling film tightly around the baking tray, then chill for four hours, until set. Cut into rectangles.
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Sprinkle the flour and breadcrumbs onto separate plates. Beat the eggs and then dip each rectangle in the flour, then egg, then breadcrumbs.
Heat a third of the rapeseed oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the rectangles in batches and fry for 5 minutes each side, until crisp. Remove and transfer to a baking tray. Repeat the process with the remaining rectangles. Transfer to the oven and cook for 5 minutes.
Apple purée
Heat the apples and sugar in a pan over a medium heat until the sugar dissolves and the fruit purees. Remove and cool. Stir in mustard and chill.
Cut off the stalks from the fennel bulb and keep the fronds for the salad. Using a mandolin slicer, slice the fennel across the bulb into iced water to crisp and curl, leave to one side in the iced water for 20 minutes.
To serve
Drain the fennel of any excess water and along with the frisse and picked fennel fronds, place into a bowl and dress with the lemon juice and olive oil, season with a little crushed Halen Mon celery salt to taste.
