Last Friday evening I spent a pleasant two hours on an empty train with the sea at my back. I’d spent the afternoon between work, school and trains, herding eight children in the direction of Sussex. It was like a school trip – myself and another nanny doling out packed lunches and supervising toilet trips. There are worse jobs than chaperoning to the sea. The children were spending the weekend in Bexhill with their parents (who had driven up early to go to the opera, hence the chaperoning). The house had a magnificent view of the ocean. A fawn shimmer flowed across the sash windows, the glass the only thing separating the house from the vast expanse of sea.
It was a fleeting escape from London – a world currently centred on a new job/internship (yay!), moving into a new house and the new sensations of graduate life – yet it was vaguely liberating. The thought that the ocean is only a shortish train journey away is a comfort.
Anyway, as I sat on the empty train with only my reflection staring back at me from the darkness of the outside world, I took some time to reflect on happiness, the future and ocean metaphors. Luckily for you, any profound thoughts turned towards to the joys of pork belly.
It’s a cut of meat that prompts two different responses: “urgh, the fat!”or “oooh, the fat!”. Thank God I’m in the latter camp. It’s that fat, which is allowed to melt in the slow cooker and melt some more when placed under the grill, which makes it so melt-in-the-mouth delicious. The belly has to be seasoned liberally with sea salt before being grilled though, because everybody knows that fat only tastes good with lots and lots of salt.
Before work this morning, I settled the pork belly on some green lentils, a chopped onion and several cloves of unpeeled garlic. I turned it on low for nine hours and came home to both meat and carb with no extra effort. All you really have to/should do is cook some creamed leeks to serve it with.
As my life* motto explains: you can never have too much animal fat.
*’life motto’, until the time of my premature heart attack
Pork Belly with Lentils
Ingredients
– A piece of pork belly
– However many green lentils you need to feed yourselves
– One roughly chopped onion
– A handful of unpeeled garlic cloves
– A vegetable stock code/bouillon powder
– Parsley
1. Throw lentils into slow cooker. Use however many you need.
2. Add stock powder/cube, onion, garlic cloves (don’t bother to peel – the skin becomes so soft after cooking that you won’t notice it, I promise) and a generous splash of water.
3. Place pork belly on top.
4. Cook on low for 8-9 hours
5. Lift pork out, remove skin, score fat, season liberally with sea salt and place under grill until the fat’s acquired a slight crispy top (about 5 mins).
6. Serve with the lentils and creamed leeks.
To The Table 
