Slow-Roast Pork Belly with Warm New Potato Salad and Smoked Bacon Runner Beans

This is a Gary Rhodes recipe (for US readers - he is a well-known restaurateur and TV chef in the UK) which featured pork belly. Pork belly is not something I was familiar with prior to coming to the UK, but now, I can't get enough of it. The mustard sauce which accompanies the beans along with the acidic tang of the creme fraiche in the potato salad are amazing. Put it with slow-roasted, super juicy, well-seasoned pork belly and it is a revelation.

1 kg boned pork belly, rind left on and scored
1 tablespoon olive oil
Maldon sea salt
a twist of black pepper
POTATO SALAD
675 g new potatoes
3 tablespoons olive oil
1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
4 spring onions (scallions), finely shredded, or 1 heaped tablespoon chopped chives, or both
150 ml creme fraiche
RUNNER BEANS
450 g runner beans, finely sliced
100 g pancetta, diced
1 tablespoon Dijon or wholegrain mustard
50 g unsalted butter, diced

Season the meat side of the pork with salt and pepper. Turn the belly joint, brush with the olive oil and season with a generous sprinkling of salt. Place the belly, rind-side up, on a wire rack sitting over a baking tray. Place in an oven preheated to 160C/325F and roast for 3 hours. During this time, the melting fat will baste the meat. When cooked, the joint should be crisp on top with a super-succulent texture beneath, so soft it will carve with a spoon. Remove the pork from the oven and leave to rest until just warm.

Meanwhile, cook the new potatoes in boiling salted water until just tender. Drain well, cut each potato in half and season with salt and pepper. Stir together the olive oil and lemon juice, sprinkle this mixture over the potatoes and spoon through to ensure all are coated. Cover and keep warm.

The sliced runner beans can be cooked at the last moment. Simply plunge them into boiling salted water and simmer until tender. Depending on their thickness, this can take anything from 1 to 5 minutes. Drain well and set aside. The pancetta can be crisped in advance. Heat a frying pan (skillet) and, once warm, add the pancetta and fry over a medium heat. The fat will be released, the pancetta slowly becoming crisp. Drain and add to the runner beans.

Just before serving, mix the shredded spring onions or chives and the creme fraiche with the warm potatoes. To finish the runner beans, heat a few tablespoons of water in a small saucepan with the mustard. Once simmering, whisk in the butter until emulsified, to create a loose mustard butter sauce. Season with a pinch of salt and a twist of pepper. Divide the pork belly into 4 strips, placing each on a plate with the runner beans and pancetta. Drizzle the beans with the mustard butter sauce and offer the potato salad separately.