I really enjoy slow cooked meat, as it’s one way of making sure it gets very tender. I tend to order pork belly quite a bit in restaurants, too, as it always seems to be one of the more flavoursome pieces of meat.

I wanted to add a bit of a far-eastern feel to this pork belly, so I braised it in a casserole dish with sake, star anise, garlic, dried chillies and half a pint of pork stock for a couple of hours, basting a couple of times along the way. This was all on gas mark 2 (150 C, 300F). I then removed it from the pan and put in on a wire rack in a baking tray to cook for another couple of hours. Finally, I raised the temperature to gas mk 6 (200 C, 400F) and placed at the top of the oven for 15 mins to get lovely crisp crackling.

It tasted absolutely fantastic, with quite subtle hints of the star anise, garlic, sake and chilli. I was thinking of making an apple and cider vinegar jus to go with it, but ended up just stuffing it into a pitta before wolfing it down.  I think I probably should have made something quite acidic to go with it, as it was very fatty and could have done with something to cut through that. It probably would have been good served with some roasted vegetables too, but I was happy as a pig in.., erm, muck, with the meat on it’s own.