Pork Belly Cassoulet

Ingredients:

• 200-250g Pork Belly
• 2 pinches Maldon Sea Salt (or similar)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 clove Garlic (peeled)
• 2 smoked Toulouse Sausage (about 120g) – or similar Smoked Sausage (or even Bacon Lardons if you can’t find the sausage)
• 60ml White Wine
• 500g good quality cooked White Beans
• 200g chopped tinned Tomatoes
• 1 pinch chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 pinch chopped fresh Thyme
• 2 tablespoons Garlic Butter (this can be made with mixing 25g unsalted butter and half a garlic clove)
• 80 g Wild Mushroom (optional)
• 1 tablespoon Olive Oil
• 2 slices Sourdough Bread or good country life style bread

Method:

1. Pat the pork belly skin dry with a paper towel. With a sharp knife, score through skin every ½-inch at a diagonal, cutting through skin and into fat. Repeat scoring in an opposite diagonal to create a diamond shape pattern.
2. Season pork belly with the Maldon salt, place on a plate, wrap and refrigerate overnight for best results. (if you don’t have time for overnight, then just leave it for a couple of hours)
3. Preheat oven to 230°c.
4. Roast pork belly for 30 minutes on the middle rack in a heavy, oven-safe pan or skillet, skin side up / fat side up. Reduce heat to 140°c and roast for an hour until meat feels like you can pull it apart.
5. While the pork is cooking, slice the sausage (or smoked bacon), heat a large frying pan and fry the sausage in the vegetable oil until it is lightly browned.
6. Add the crushed garlic and chopped fresh thyme and cook for 1 minute until lightly caramelised and then add the white wine and boil.
7. Add the cooked white beans, chopped tomatoes and reduce to a low heat.
8. Simmer the cassoulet for 5-10 minutes until it has thickened up.
9. Remove the crust from the bread and roll in a little olive oil and place on a baking tray and bake with the pork belly in the oven for 5-10 minutes until lightly browned
10. Take the wild mushrooms and pick them into smaller pieces using your hands then give them a quick wash and pat dry.
11. Once the pork belly is out of the oven, remove the pork from the pan and place on the side
12. Use the same pan and cook the wild mushrooms in the pan until nicely cooked and lightly brown (if there is a lot of fat in the pan, just carefully remove them.)
13. Place the cassoulet beans into a cassoulet dish or an oven proof baking dish
14. Place the pork belly, cooked wild mushrooms and croutons on top
15. Take the garlic butter and spread around the cassoulet then take the dish and place under the grill for 2-3 minutes until the butter is nicely melted
16. Be careful with the hot dish and serve immediately!