Crispy Pork Belly with Butter Bean Purée, Apple Sauce and Honey Glazed Vegetables

Happy New Year! Toast is back, and to celebrate a 2016 full of new recipes, we're kicking off with a traditional favourite.

Ingredients:

1 Organic Pork Belly

For the Butter Bean Puree

1 Can of Butter Beans, rinsed and drained

Large Chunk of Butter

125ml of Double Cream

Sprinkle Cracked Black Pepper

Sprinkle of Sea Salt

For the Apple Sauce

1 Bramley Apple, peeled and sliced

Half a Red Onion

100ml Cider Vinegar

Finger of Butter

Splash of Olive Oil

Vegetables and Garnish

Fresh Sage Leaves

Handful of Radish Bulbs

The other half of Red Onion, thinly sliced

Baby Carrots

Chopped Bramley Apple

Method:

Preheat your oven to 220C. Season the pork belly with salt, pepper and fresh sage and work into the skin and cracks on the top of the meat. When the oven is ready and hot, place the pork belly on a baking tray and place in the oven, iniatially for forty-five minutes.

While the pork belly is left to crisp up in the oven, you can prepare your apple sauce, which can be served both and hot and cold.

In a small frying pan, melt a small finger of butter and then add chopped red onion and chopped bramley apple (leave a small piece for baking later with veg). Keeping the pan on a medium heat, fry the ingredients for approximately ten minutes allowing the onion and apple to soften and combine. When they begin to soften, add fresh sage leaves and the cider vinegar in splashes, allowing each splash to sizzle gently and reduce.

After about five or six minutes, remove from the heat and pour it all into a blender with a drop of olive oil. Blend everything together to create a smooth, zesty apple sauce. And that's that!

Next, the butter bean purée, which is even easier. Place a large frying pan on a medium heat and add a knob of butter and double cream. Stir gently as the butter melts and the cream warms. When the ingredients begin emitting a soft toasted nut smell, it's ready. This should take no more than five minutes. Add a generous dose of black pepper and a sprinkle of sea salt. Lower the heat, and pour in the entire can of butter beans. Stir everything up for a further two to three minutes, warming the beans. Then remove from the heat and pour the entire contents of the pan into the blender, while hot. Give the mixture a thorough blast in the blender, until smooth and silky. And the purée is ready.

After about forty five minutes, reduce the heat of the oven to 160C. Leave to continue for cooking for further thirty to forty minutes. In the meantime, you can prepare a variety of your favourite vegetables. I tend to mix together baby carrots, radish, red onion and chopped apple in a baking tray with more sage and a squeeze of honey. You can choose all sorts of other treats, such as cabbage or leeks, which work great with pork.

After about forty minutes, the pork belly should be ready. If the skin is still looking a little soft, give it another fifteen minutes on 220C again to thoroughly crisp up the top.

Leave the meat to reast for ten or so minutes, giving you time to warm up your plates and serve out the beans, sauce and veg. And that is all it takes to make a super tasty traditional treat.

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