HungryForever

BOILED BELLY AND LENTILS

This dish celebrates the not quite meat, not quite fat, quality of pork belly.

Servings

Ingredients

BOILED BELLY
5pound ½piece of pork bellywith skin and bones on, which has been in a brine for 10 days, rinsed
2 whole Carrotspeeled
2 onionspeeled and stuck with 8 cloves
2 leekswhole and cleaned
2 sticks of celery
2 whole heads of garlic
a bunch of fresh herbs
black peppercorns
lentils
extra virgin olive oil
1 onionpeeled and chopped into thin slices
1 leekcleaned and chopped into thin slices
5cloves of garlicpeeled and chopped finely
2in carrotspeeled and choppedhalf, then into 1/5-inch-thick slices
1pound 2 ounces Puy lentils
a bundle of thyme and parsley
sea salt and black pepper
a big handful of chopped curly parsley

Instructions

BOILED BELLY
Place the pork belly into a pan with all the other ingredients, and cover with water. Bring to the boil, skim, and reduce to a very gentle simmer with the water barely moving for 3½ hours, until the flesh is soft and giving, but not collapsing. Remove from the water, slice, and serve with lentils and mustard.
Encourage your dining companions to eat the fat and all. With the rich and fatty belly you want quite dour lentils.
LENTILS
Cover the bottom of a largish pan with olive oil, and sweat your chopped vegetables and garlic. At the moment they are only just starting to soften, not coloring, add the lentils. Stir these for a couple of minutes in the oil and vegetables, then cover with water and nestle in the thyme and parsley bundle. Simmer and stir occasionally—you want the lentils soft but not squidgy, so that they have reserved their lentil integrity, but are not still individual hard nuts. This should take about 40 minutes. If they dry out add a spot more water.
Now season, which, particularly with lentils, is a very exciting moment. It is amazing what simple salt and pepper do to the flavor of lentils—they make lentils of them. Just before serving, stir in your chopped parsley and a healthy splash of extra-virgin olive oil which will enrich and give a shine to your lentils, as they can veer to the dull side.