Bite reader Carmen Lo was a finalist in our recent apple recipe competition with her belly pork pies. Carmen's recipe for the pork belly came from westmeatonline.co.nz and she decided to turn it into pies.
The Bite team tested the pork belly as is, serving it with vegetables and the sauce and apples alongside. It was delicious and the judges thought that turning it into pies was a fantastic idea.
For more apple recipes that got our attention, click here.
Ingredients
| 1 ½ kgs | Pork belly, well scored (Main) |
| 2 cups | Apple cider, or apple juice (Main) |
| 2 | Apples, cored and sliced (Main) |
| 4 | Cloves |
| 2 | Flaky pastry sheets, use more as required |
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Directions
- Heat oven to 150C. Place the pork in a small roasting dish, skin-side up. Pour over cider or juice and place apples and cloves alongside. Cover tightly with a sheet of foil and bake for 3 hours.
- Remove the cloves and strain juices into a saucepan and simmer to thicken into an apple gravy/sauce.
- Meanwhile, increase oven temperature to 180C. Rub some salt and oil into the skin of the pork and roast until it crackles.
- Layer pie tins with flaky pastry.
- Remove crackling from pork and set aside. Slice the pork and place in the pie tins with the apples and sauce. Seal with pastry tops and bake for 30 minutes.
- Serve pies with a piece of crackling on top and some mashed potato.
Want to see more reader recipes? Have a lookhereat winners from earlier competitions.
