Roasted Pork Belly with Caramalized Root Vegetables, Blanched Green Beans served with Apple and Sichuan Pepper Relish and Parsnip Puree

So with a simple ingredient like apple as my starting point, it was hard to know where to begin. I thought back to the history of the apple and how it first appeared in Asia and then moved across the Middle East into continental Europe and to the British Isles. So what dish could I create that brought the flavours of Asia together with the British Isles using apple? One of the biggest links in cuisine between these two regions is pork. It is a meat widely used in Asian cuisine, as well as in classic British dishes like roast pork.

I decided to work on the roast pork theme but with a distinctly Asian twist. Instead of using a traditional cut of pork I went with pork belly, which is common in Chinese cookery and you will see it hung in Chinese restaurants alongside duck in the window. The second twist was the classic accompaniment to a roast pork dinner, apple sauce. I put together a relish blending apple with garlic, onion and spicy sichuan pepper, creating a sweet relish with a savoury spicy edge. I finished the plate with classic roasted vegetables and a smooth parsnip puree to add to the diversity of textures on the plate.

I did research quite a few techniques to cook pork belly and in the end the way I did it was a great success. The crackling was so crisp yet easy to chew and the pork meat underneath fell apart when touched. I left the pork belly uncovered in the fridge for 4 days uncovered to dry out. I then scored the skin at 1cm intervals and rubbed salt into the gaps. I had the oven up as high as it could go and blasted the pork with heat to crisp the skin for 30 mins. I then turned down the oven to 180 and cooked for a further 2 hours.

One of the great successes of this dish played upon my expectations of roast pork and apple sauce. When the spicy sichuan pepper and savoury flavours hit your tongue, you taste the apple as sweet as that is your expectation, even though it is quite savoury. Very enjoyable indeed and another dish planned for tomorrow night as I head into the land of desserts.