Tamworth Belly Pork ~ Matt Davies ~ Moat House, StaffsMatt D

Executive Chef Matt Davies, The Lewis Partnership Staffordshire

Tamworth Belly Pork by Matt Davies, Executive Chef .

Matt Davies is Executive Chef for Staffordshire-based restaurant group ‘The Lewis Partnership, who operate venues including The Moat House (Acton Trussell), Swan Hotel and Bear Grill (Stafford) and more recently the Dog and Doublet (Sandon);  recently winning what is described as the “Chef Oscars”, Matt Davies, Group Executive Chef of the Lewis Partnership, was awarded the “Louis Cipolla National Chef of the Year Award. today he shares with eat-the-midlands.co.uk his favourite staffordshire dish.

Confit of Tamworth pork belly, spiced pan roasted apples and pears, piquant sauce

For the confit pork

1 draft of belly pork
2 bay leafs
4 cloves of garlic,
4 sprigs of thyme
Rapeseed oil

For the spiced apples and pears
1 granny smith apple
1 Williams’s pear
Pinch of nutmeg
Pinch of cinnamon
Teaspoon of sugar

For the piquant sauce
Tablespoon of chopped gherkins
Tablespoon of chopped capers
Tablespoon of chopped shallots
Good quality beef glace
Good splash of red wine vinegar

Trim the pork belly, place in a deep roasting tray, with the bay leaf thyme and garlic, cover with the rapeseed oil, and cover with foil, place in oven and cook on 80oc for 12- 24 hours, remove from oven and place in a flat tray between two pieces of greaseproof paper, cover with another tray, then place a heavy weight on top then refrigerate for aprox 5 hours,

For the sauce, sauté the gherkins shallots and garlic off in a thick bottomed pan, add the red wine vinegar and reduce by half
Then add the beef glace,

Peel, deseed, and quarter the apples and pears, sauté in a knob of butter for 5 minutes, add the sugar and caramelised in the pan, finally add the spices and serve

Remove the pork belly from the fridge, peel off the greaseproof, and then cut into portion size rectangles,
Heat a pan up with a splash of the confit oil in it, place in the pork belly skin side down, and then roast in the oven for about 8 minutes,

To serve, place the crispy pork belly in the centre of the plate, place the apples and pears on and around the pork, drizzle with sauce and finish with crispy crackling

More on Chef Matt Davies and his Award HERE, and more on the Lewis Partnership HERE