Roast Pork Belly with Blue Cheese & Fennel Slaw Recipe

Recipe:
Preheat your oven to 200°C. Lay the pork belly flat, skin-side down. Sprinkle with lots of salt and pepper and rub the seasoning into the meat. If using ready-rolled pork belly, simply do the same over the outside of the meat.

In a bowl, combine the chopped herbs, lemon zest and juice, garlic and olive oil. Brush the marinade over the pork before rolling it up and securing with kitchen twine. Cut 10 lengths of string, each about 30cm long for tying. Sprinkle the herbs, fennel seeds and garlic over the pork. Carefully roll up the from one of the long ends, then tie very tightly with string in the middle of the roll. Tie at either end, about 1cm in, then keep tying at intervals along the roll until all the lengths of string have been used up. If any filling escapes, push it back in.

Again, if using a ready-rolled pork belly, simply rub the marinade into the meat. Rub the ready-rolled pork with a little extra olive oil and roast in the hot oven for 15 minutes with the seam facing upwards. Turn the pork and cook for the further 15 minutes with the seam facing down. Reduce the oven’s temperature to 130°C and cover the pork with foil. I also like to pour in a little white wine to steam the meat as it cooks but this is optional. Roast the pork for a further 3 hours before removing from the oven. For extra crispy skin, give the skin a quick blast under the grill, turning once. Rest the pork for 5-10 minutes before slicing.

For the slaw, use a sharp knife to slice the lettuce into ribbons and thinly cut the fennel. Retain some of the fennel tops to use in the slaw. Combine the lettuce and fennel in a bowl and drizzle over some olive oil. To assemble a pork belly sandwich, halve a ciabatta roll and top with some slaw followed by a slice or two of pork. Crumble a little blue cheese over the top and close the roll.