Roast pork belly with cider and chorizo broth
Irresistibly tender pork with a bowl of Spanish-style broth, flavoured with paprika, apple juice and chorizo.
Ingredients
For the pork
- 2 sprigs thyme, leaves picked and chopped
- 1 bay leaf, chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 500g/1lb 2oz pork belly
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the broth
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, diced
- ½ fennel bulb, cored, diced and fronds reserved
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 3 garlic cloves, sliced
- 100²µ/3½´Ç³ú chorizo, diced or 1 tbsp sobrasada
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tsp paprika
- 150ml/5fl oz apple juice
- 1 bay leaf
- 300ml/10fl oz chicken or pork stock
- 2 tbsp sherry vinegar
Method
Preheat the oven to 180C/160C Fan/Gas 4.
Rub the thyme, bay and oil into the pork, along with some salt and pepper. Roast for 2 hours until soft. Allow the pork to cool before slicing.
Meanwhile, make the broth. Heat the olive oil in a large pan or casserole and fry the onion, fennel, fennel seeds and garlic until soft, but not coloured. Add the chorizo or sobrasada and cook until it releases its oil. Add both the paprikas and cook, stirring, for a minute or two. Add the apple juice, bay leaf and stock and simmer for 30 minutes more.
Strain the broth through a sieve into a pan, discarding the cooked veg and chorizo. Add the sherry vinegar to taste.
Spoon the broth into a bowl and top with the slices of pork, garnishing with the reserved fennel fronds.