Smoked Pork Belly with Creamy Mash & Apple, Kale & Hazelnut Salad

Ingredients

1 piece smoked pork belly
 
Creamy Mash

1kg potatoes, cut into cubes
50g butter
½ cup cream
¼ cup milk
 
Kale, Apple & Hazelnut Salad

75g hazelnuts
Juice 1 lemon
1 apple
175g kale, roughly torn
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ cup parsley, finely chopped
 
Crispy Sage Leaves

30g butter
40 sage leaves

Method:


Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.

Put the hazelnuts into a small oven proof dish and roast for 8-10 minutes until fragrant and the skins have started to pull away from the nut. Tip out onto a clean tea towel, fold the tea towel over the top of the nuts and rub to remove the skins. Discard the skins and roughly chop the nuts. Put the lemon juice into a small bowl. Halve and core the apples then thinly slice them, putting them into the lemon juice as you go to keep them from going brown. Put the kale into a salad bowl, pour over the olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and gently massage for a minute until the leaves start to darken. Sprinkle over the parsley and top with apples  (lemon juice included) and hazelnuts.
 
Score the pork on the diagonal to make a cross hatch pattern, rub with olive oil, sprinkle with sea salt and put into a small oven-proof dish and roast for 20 minutes. Turn the oven onto grill on the highest heat and grill for a further 15 minutes or until the skin is golden and crispy. Keep an eye on it as you go so that it doesn’t burn. Remove from the oven and slice into pieces.
 
While the meat is in the oven put the potatoes into a large pot and cover with water. Bring to the boil then cook for 10 minutes or until soft and cooked through. Remove from the heat and drain. Add the butter, cream and milk, season well with sea salt and mash until smooth.
 
Put the butter into a heavy bottomed frying pan, melt then add the sage leaves and cook for 5 minutes or until crispy.
 
Divide the mash between 4 plates, top with the pork then scatter over sage leaves and drizzle with the browned butter. Serve with the apple and kale salad.