Roasted Pork Belly With Orange And Star Anise

Ingredients

• 180 ml balsamic vinegar
• 100 ml olive oil
• 2 pork bellies, skin on
• black pepper
• 30 g thyme, roughly chopped
• 30 g rosemary, roughly chopped
• 1 garlic, cloves peeled and crushed
• 2 /3 bottle of white wines
• sea salt
• 160 g honey
• 7 oranges, cut in half
• 500 ml orange juice
• 10 star anises
• Roast potatoes, to serve
• Steamed seasonal greens, to serve

Method

1. Heat the oven to its maximum setting, usually 240°C/220°C fan/gas 9. Sit the orange halves cut-side up across the base of a large roasting tray — they're the rack the pork sits on, and they'll catch every drop of fat that renders out.
2. Pulse the thyme, rosemary, garlic and olive oil in a food processor to a rough, fragrant paste. Don't worry about the raw garlic here — it's going low and slow inside the herb crust, so it'll mellow rather than burn; the danger zone for burning garlic is fast hot oil, not a three-hour roast.
3. Lay the pork belly skin-side down on top of the oranges. Season the flesh generously with salt and pepper — this is your one shot at seasoning the meat itself, so don't be shy — then press the herb paste firmly into every crevice.
4. Flip the pork carefully so the skin faces up, resting on the oranges. Pat the skin bone-dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam is the enemy of crackling — then scatter heavily with sea salt, working it into the scores. The salt draws moisture out as it roasts; that's how you get shatter, not chew.
5. Roast at the top temperature for 1 hour, turning the tray halfway. The skin should be deep gold and starting to firm up, the kitchen smelling of pine and citrus, and you'll hear the fat starting to crackle in the tray.
6. Drop the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/gas 3. Pour the white wine and orange juice into the tray, keeping the liquid well away from the skin — the wine and juice braise the underside while the skin stays dry on top. Roast for another hour. If the skin colours too fast, tent it loosely with foil.
7. Drop the oven again to 110°C/90°C fan/gas ¼. Roast uncovered for a final hour — this is when the skin dries out completely and shatters into proper crackling. Tap it with the back of a spoon; it should sound hollow, not soft.
8. Meanwhile, make the glaze. Tip the balsamic, honey and star anise into a heavy-bottomed pan and simmer over a medium heat for 8–10 minutes until glossy and syrupy enough to coat the back of a spoon. Spoon a ladleful of the reserved roasting juices into the glaze and swirl it through — that's where the savoury depth comes from, the sweet-sour balance against all the rendered pork fat. Taste it: it should be sharp, sticky, and properly seasoned. Adjust with a pinch of salt and a crack of pepper now, not at the table.
9. Lift the pork onto a board and rest for 15 minutes — you should hear the crackling tick as it cools. Carve into thick slabs, plate with the roasted orange halves alongside (squeeze one over the meat as you serve — the warm citrus juice cuts straight through the fat), spoon the warm glaze over, and finish with fresh thyme sprigs, flaky sea salt and cracked black pepper. Roast potatoes and steamed greens alongside if you're going full Sunday.