Ingredients

• 1.8 kg/3lb 15½oz belly pork
• skin on
• 4 tbsp cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp pork dripping or butter
• 8 bay leaves
• crushed
• 1 whole garlic
• sliced in half
• 4 parsnips
• cut into long wedges
• 400g/14¼oz carrots
• 6 whole shallots
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 55g/2oz spinach

Directions

• The night before
• boil a kettle and pour the boiling water over the pork skin (this method will give you better crackling). Discard the water.
• Next
• baste the raw joint with cider vinegar; rubbing it all over to ensure the vinegar gets into the rind. Place the joint on a plate in the fridge
• uncovered
• overnight.
• Remove the pork from the fridge and spread with the dripping or butter
• crushed bay leaves and garlic. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper
• set aside for the flavours to develop.
• Pre-heat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
• Place the pork
• skin side up
• on a wire rack that fits over an empty roasting tray. Roast for one hour and then reduce the oven temperature to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
• Place the parsnips
• carrots and shallots into the bottom of a roasting tray; add the thyme and olive oil and a glass of water.
• Remove the tray from beneath the pork and pour any fat that has gathered in the bottom of the tray over the vegetables; place the vegetables tray underneath the pork.
• Roast for a further hour
• basting the vegetables with the juices from the pork in the bottom of the pan from time to time.
• Remove the pork from the wire rack and allow to rest for 15 minutes in a warm place.
• Toss the spinach leaves with the vegetables from the roasting pan. Drain off any fat leaving the cooking juices behind.
• Carve off the crackling in one piece and portion. Serve the pork with the roasted root vegetables and gravy.