Middle White pork belly with roast carrot, bagna cauda and chicory and onion tart

Serves 2 Starters and mains

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Method

Preheat the oven to 230C/210C Fan/Gas 8. Season the pork belly with salt and place skin-side up in a roasting tray. Roast for 20-30 minutes to crisp the skin; once you’ve got some good crackling going, turn the oven down to 120C/100C Fan/Gas 1⁄2 and slow-cook for 1 hour. Check the core temperature using a probe
– it should be 58C. Leave to rest for 20 minutes, making sure that you retain 80g of rendered pork fat for the chicory, and turn the oven up to 170C/150C Fan/Gas 3.

Remove the leafy tops from your carrots and save for the salad later. Peel and season the carrots with salt and some pork fat from the roasting tin, then roast for 15-20 minutes, or until tender.

Meanwhile, make your tart.

Fry off the lardons and leave to one side. Remove any brown or discoloured outer leaves from the chicory and cut in half lengthways. Heat the pork fat in an ovenproof frying pan over a medium heat and brown the chicory cut-side down. Don’t be tempted to rush this – you want to the chicory to be slowly caramelising. When they are golden, add the butter and flip so that the cut side is facing up. Sprinkle with caster sugar and bake in the oven for 5 minutes. Rest for 30 minutes.

Increase the oven temperature to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4 and line a baking sheet with baking parchment. Lay your puff pastry on the lined baking sheet and spread a thin layer of Lyonnaise onions to the edges. Sprinkle the lardons over the top of the onions. Now slice the top half off the chicory and set aside. Finely chop the bottom half and spread a layer over the onions. Neatly arrange the tops on the tart and bake for 12 minutes. Carefully lift the tart up on one side to check the base of the pastry – it should be golden brown and crisp. Leave the tart to rest while you prepare the salad.

Pick the chervil and carrot tops into small leaves and wash in iced water. Drain and shake off any excess water. Thinly shave the apple using a mandolin and then slice into matchsticks. Mix the leaves and apple together and season with olive oil, salt and a squeeze of lemon juice. Place a large handful on top of the tart and then get on with building the rest of the plate. Carve a big slice of the pork belly, place a carrot next to it with a good spoonful of bagna cauda and finally drizzle with the brown butter jus.

Lyonnaise onions

SERVES 6 AS A SIDE

Combine the onions with the beef fat and salt in a heavy-based saucepan over a low heat. Add the thyme and gently stew until the onions begin to caramelise, stirring occasionally. This takes a couple of hours to do properly.

When the onions are a rich golden brown colour, remove from the heat and strain off any excess fat. If you want to store them for a few weeks, don’t discard the fat but leave it covering the onions to preserve them.

Bagna cauda

MAKES 550G (ENOUGH FOR 4 AS A DIP)

You need to start by making a garlic paste, which will act as the base for the bagna cauda.

Peel the garlic, then cut the garlic cloves in half and remove the green germ, which can be unpleasantly bitter. Combine 700ml of the milk with 700ml water.

Place your prepared cloves in a saucepan along with the milk-water mixture. Bring to the boil. Once boiling, skim the froth off the milk and discard. Repeat this four more times, then pour in the remaining 150ml of milk. At this point, the milk needs to cover the garlic, so add a touch more if necessary. Simmer the mixture over a very low heat, stirring every few minutes, until it forms a thick paste consistency and the garlic has completely broken down. Remove from heat and chill.

To finish the bagna cauda, put the garlic paste into a high- speed blender with the drained anchovies, vinegar and lemon juice. Blend at a medium-high speed and gradually add the oil in a thin stream to emulsify. As with any emulsion, if it’s getting too thick before you’ve added all the oil, a dash of cold water will sort things out. Pass through a fine sieve and store, chilled. It will keep for a couple of weeks.

Beef Sauce

MAKES 1 LITRE

Combine the stocks, port and wine together. Bring to the boil over a medium heat, then turn down to a simmer. Leave the stock to reduce by two-thirds, skimming off any fat that rises to the surface.

You should end up with a rich, full-bodied sauce that is almost sticky in texture. Store, chilled, for up to 4 days, or freeze.

Brown butter jus

MAKES 400ML

First, make brown butter. Gently heat the butter to 180C, carefully skimming and discarding the froth that will form on top. Once the butter reaches 180C and smells nutty, pass it through a fine sieve into a bowl. This will keep, chilled, for up to a month.

To make the jus, warm the beef sauce and brown butter together in a pan over a medium heat, whisking until the butter is completely melted into the sauce.