Perry-braised pork belly with glazed pears

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 140C/ gas 1. Scatter the peppercorns and bay leaf over a roasting tray.

2. With a sharp knife, score the skin of the belly pork. Lay the pork in a roasting tin, skin side up, on top of the peppercorns and bay leaf. Rub the skin of the pork with sea salt.

3. Pour the perry and water over and around the pork. Cover the meat with a square of baking parchment and seal the whole tray with foil. Transfer to the oven and cook for 1 ½ hrs.

4. Add the peeled onions to the tin, cover with paper and foil again, and cook for a further 30 minutes.

5. Remove the foil and paper and add the pears to the tin. Turn the oven up to 180C/ gas 4. Cook for a further 30 minutes, uncovered. Halfway through this final cooking time, spoon over the cooking juices to glaze the meat.

6. Remove the pork from the oven. If the juices haven't yet cooked down to a sticky glaze, place the pork, onions and pears on a serving dish and tip the juices into a saucepan. Boil these juices down until they become syrupy.

7. Serve straight away with mashed potatoes and a simple green salad.