Roast Pork with Apples and Onions

I really like the neighbourhood I live in. I'm just outside the centre of Bristol so I can walk into the city pretty easily, there are a few convenient shops close by, really decent pubs, and great places to eat. The one thing I haven't been able to find is a butcher. I was spoilt for meat - spoilt, I say - before I moved as I was really close to a proper fancy deli butcher, and I miss flirting a bit to get an extra couple of short ribs thrown in for free (Dear Pete - that never happened) (Dear Reader - that totally happened).

I still haven't found anything close by, but then there is a pub literally across the road from me, so you win some you lose some. I have, however, found another fancy little deli butcher in the city centre. It's called Source, and I like it.

They have a big focus on organic and rare breed meat so it's a bit pricey, but they've got a good range, and worth it for a treat. All their pork is Gloucester Old Spot, which I hadn't tried before but had heard good things about, so I got about 3 pounds of belly pork to roast.

Slow roast belly pork is really easy, but you've got to put the time in.

I used:

2 apples (Braeburn, if you're interested)
2 large onions
4 large potatoes
Lots of Belly pork
Salt
Dried rosemary

First of all I preheated the oven to as hot as it would go. This is to sear the skin and make sure you get crispy crackling. Score the skin of the pork and rub in the salt and rosemary. When the oven is hot enough, put the meat in a large roasting tray and pop in the oven for 20-30 minutes.

While the meat is in the oven, prep the veg. Peel the onions and potatoes, but leave the skin on the apples. Core the apple, and cut all the veg into large chunks. These are going to cook for a long time, so anything too small is just going to burn or melt away into nothingness.

After about half an hour, take the meat out of the oven and turn the temperature way down, about GM 2-3. Take the meat out of the tray, add the veg, and put the meat back in on top of the veg. This means the fat from the pork will drip down and baste the veg.

Put the whole tray back in the oven and leave for at least 2, preferably 3 hours.

When everything is done you should have really soft meat, crispy crackling, cooked onions and potatoes, with a meaty apple sauce. Remember to reserve the fat and any other brown bits for gravy.

The Gloucester Old Spot was delicious, and produced some of the best crackling I've ever made. The only thing is that it produces so much fat that the potatoes were more confit than crispy, so in future I might take those out of the tray a little early and let them just crisp up on their own separately.

REMEMBER TO KEEP THE DELICIOUS FAT FOR OTHER DELICIOUS PURPOSES. 'S really important. I got about half a pint out of this lot, and I could probably have used it to swim the Channel had I been so inclined.