All the winter flavours are here, and a good mix of bitter, sweet, smoky, sharp and salty too!

For 4
10 minutes preparation
25 minutes cooking

4 heads chicory (endive) halved longways
50g – 70g butter according to your taste for it!
50g smoked lardons or sliced bacon
2 – 3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds
1 blood orange (or an ordinary orange)
Pepper

Heat the oven to 180C.

Melt half the butter in a pan and add the lardons. When sizzling, add the chicory and brown on all sides over a medium heat.

Transfer into an oven proof dish, pushing the pieces snugly against each other. Add a little water – to about ½ cm/1cm up the sides of the chicory – dot the tops with butter and cook for about 25 minutes until the centres are tender and the edges golden.

While the chicory is cooking, remove the flesh from the orange as you would when eating a grapefruit – halve it, then cut delicately down the sides of the segments to remove them, avoiding pith and membranes.

Season the chicory with pepper (the lardons are salty enough), garnish with the pomegranate and orange and serve nice and hot.