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fine dining made easy Tom McNeeney, from The Lancashire Hospitality Co, shares his latest cookery masterclass... "Call it date night. Call it pushing the boat out. Call it what you want, but we’ve been locked down a little too long and it’s about time we did something different. So here’s my foolproof three course menu that can’t fail to impress and at the very least kills a little time!"
Pork belly with barley & butternut squash Right. Now this does look ridiculously fancy but each individual element is super easy, it’s a case of bringing all of these simple things together into something brilliant. You’ll impress yourself (and everyone else). Ingredients: 400g boned belly pork 4 pork cheeks (ask your local butcher) 1 stick of celery (diced) 1 white onion (diced) 1 carrot (diced) 1 litre of bovril 100g barley white pepper few sprigs of thyme 1 butternut squash 20g butter 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika 1 tablespoon ketchup 1 tablespoon runny honey 1 tablespoon bbq sauce 26 | Rochdale Style
Ok, first things first, start by heating a little oil in a pan and frying your pork cheeks off on both sides over a medium heat, chuck in your vegetables and give the whole thing a little shimmy and transfer to a steep sided baking tray.
Check it every now and then, give it a stir, make sure it’s not too dry - you’re after a risotto-y consistency.
Pour over your bovril, pull the leaves off a few springs of thyme and add them in then a good pinch of white pepper. Cover the lot in tinfoil and pop into the oven on 180ºc. I’d have a wine at this point, catch up on Strictly.
Scoop the squash out of its skin and into a blender with the butter and paprika and blend till smooth.
After two and a half hours, season your pork belly all over and pop on a tray in the oven. Half an hour later, cut your squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Cut four, 1 inch thick slices out of one half of squash, cut the peel off the slices and lob them on a baking tray with the rest of the squash, season well, give a little drizzle of olive oil and pop the tray in the oven. Now, take the foiled tray out, carefully lift the pork cheeks out and put to one side. Then, add the barley to the bovril and pork stock, give it a stir, recover and pop back in the oven for another hour.
Once your hour is up, pull out the pork belly to rest for five minutes then cut into cubes.
Pour the juices from the pork into a little pan with your ketchup, honey and bbq sauce, pop in your cheeks and gently heat. Now onto each plate you want a good spoonful of your barley, a few artistic splodges of your squash puree, two nice cubes of pork, your roasted squash slice, one sticky cheek and some of the sauce. Shrug off how impressive it looks. I put some parsley on it on the photo but that’s because I can’t leave well enough alone.
