pork belly with black pudding, scallops, fondant potatoes, oyster mushrooms and wild garlic

With the starter out of the way, next up was the main course; the main event of the meal, and expectations were high. Not that I was panicking or anything of course, but I started this dish at around 10am!

Preparation is the key here. The pork is cooked, cooled and cooked again, and there's a fair bit of last minute flying around before plating up, but thankfully the end result tastes like a little bit of heaven. I love all of these ingredients, and together they're just perfect. Loads of different flavours, half a dozen different textures, and a real showcase of a meal to impress even the in-law-est of in-laws!

Enjoy making this; you'll get a real sense of achievement as a cook and what you end up eating is guaranteed to be one of the nicest meals you've produced all year!

Ingredients

For the pork belly

• 1kg - 1.3kg pork belly, bones/ribs removed. skin scored
• Handful of fresh thyme sprigs
• 2 bulbs garlic, halved horizontally
• 350ml white wine
• 500ml warm chicken stock
• Olive oil
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the fondant potatoes

• 3-4 large potatoes, peeled & cut into 4cm cubes (2 cubes per person)
• 150g butter
• 75ml chicken stock
• 2 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed/broken slightly with a knife
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

For the rest!

• 8 slices black pudding
• 8 scallops, cleaned & patted dry
• Good handful of oyster mushrooms
• 2 tbsp butter, diced
• Olive oil
• Good handful of wild garlic
• Sea salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Method

1. For the first stage of the pork belly, preheat the oven to 180c / 160c (fan) / gas mark 4.
2. Season the pork with salt & pepper on both sides and rub with a couple of good glugs of olive oil.
3. Place the garlic in a roasting pan, cut side up, and cover with the sprigs of thyme. Place the pork belly on top, skin side up, and pour around 250ml of the wine around the edges into the pan.
4. Cover loosely with tin foil, cook the pork for 2 hours before resting on a board for 10-15 minutes.
5. Place the pork in a clean tray or dish, with another on top. Weight it down (cans of food are good for this) and leave to cool for around 3-4 hours.
6. The gravy comes next! Place the original roasting tin on the stove top over a medium-high heat and deglaze with the remaining 100ml of wine. Reduce for 3-4 minutes then add the stock and reduce again by half, making sure you break the garlic & thyme down as much as possible with a wooden spoon to get all the flavour out.
7. Sieve the sauce into a jug and set to one side for reheating later when plating up.
8. When the pork is cooled (and a lot flatter), divide it into 8 equal portions and get the oven up to its highest setting (around 220c). When the oven is nice & hot, cook the pork skin side up on the top shelf until the skin crisps up (around 15 minutes or so).
9. In the meantime, you can deal with the fondant potatoes. Put the butter into a saucepan & heat until foaming. Place the potatoes in and cook for around 5 minutes, until they start to turn a nice golden brown. Turn over and cook for another 5 minutes before adding the stock, garlic and thyme sprigs. Cover & reduce the heat slightly, and simmer for another 5 minutes or so, until the potatoes are tender.
10. For the mushrooms, just fry in some olive oil with a little black pepper until cooked through & tender.
11. Next up is the black pudding. Heat a little olive oil in a non-stick pan, add the black pudding and fry for 2 minutes on each side until crispy. Remove from the pan & place to one side on a warm plate.
12. Season the scallops lightly with salt & pepper. In the same pan as you cooked the black pudding, add a little more oil and when nice & hot add the scallops and cook for 30s-60s on each side. The time will depend on the size of your scallops, but you're looking for a nice brown sear before turning.
13. Finally, sauté the wild garlic in a knob of butter until nicely wilted. You should also reheat your sauce at this stage - in a microwave will do, especially as you probably don't have any clean pans left by now!
14. To serve, place two pieces of pork belly on each plate, then two pieces of black pudding with a scallop on each, and two potatoes with a couple of the mushrooms on top. Place your wild garlic in the middle of the plate & pour the sauce into the gaps in between it all!
15. This is a fair bit of faffing around; I do understand that, but trust me, it's very much worth every second!

The dish is lovely served with pretty much any wine too! Red is great with the pork and black pudding, white is great with the potatoes, pork, scallops & black pudding, and rose is great with everything!

Enjoy!

Serves 4