Slow cooked pork belly with watermelon salsa
- Preparation and cooking time
- Prep:
- Cook:
- plus overnight chilling
- More effort
- Serves 6 - 8
Ingredients
For the pork belly
- 1.6kg boneless pork belly
- 6 black peppercorns
- ½ small bunch thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 500ml bottle dry cider
For the watermelon salsa
- ½ watermelon (around 800g), flesh finely chopped
- 1 red onion, finely chopped
- 1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
- 1 Granny Smith apple, finely chopped
- 2 limes, zest and juice
- ¼ small bunch coriander, roughly chopped
To serve
- BBQ sauce
- 6-8 flatbreads
Method
- STEP 1
Heat oven to 140C/120C fan/gas 2. Season the pork belly all over with salt then put it, the peppercorns, thyme, bay and fennel seeds in a deep roasting tin. Pour over the cider, then top up with water until the pork is submerged. Cover with foil and cook for 6 hrs.
- STEP 2
Remove from the oven and leave the pork to cool until you can touch it easily, around 10 mins, then lift from the liquid and use cling film to roll the pork as tightly as you can, then leave to cool completely in the fridge overnight.
- STEP 3
Mix all the ingredients for the watermelon salsa together and season. Set aside.
- STEP 4
Slice the pork belly into eight 1-2cm rounds and place, flat-side down. in a lightly oiled frying pan, cook until golden, 1-2 mins, then turn over and repeat so both sides are nicely crisped, even in colour and the pork is hot throughout.
- STEP 5
To serve, spread 1 tbsp of bbq sauce over each flatbread, top with the crisped pork belly and finish with a spoonful of the salsa.