Pork belly with coriander and fennel seeds

I decided to go back to my recipe books. I do own several, other than the Joy of Cooking, and got two for my birthday - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingshall's River Cottage Everyday and The Flavour Thesaurus by Niki Segnit.
I flicked through RCE, lusted after a few cuts of meat, and turned to The Flavour Theasaurus' chicken section. I was intrigued by the Chicken and Hard Cheese section. Segnit is a bit disparaging about Chicken Cordon Bleu, which I happen to love, but I was totally captured by the idea of Chicken Comte - essentially browned chicken in a wine and mustard sauce, sprinkled with Comte cheese.
Why aren't you reading about that?
Quite simple, Sainsbury's had pork belly at half-price, and I'd been eyeing up HFW's coriander and fennel pork with crackling, wishing I could afford a joint that big. The memory of that crackling from the other week also lived in my memory. I swooped on it, grabbed the other essentials and went home.
The recipe's incredibly simple - score the meat, put slightly crushed coriander and fennel seeds in to the slits and cover in sea salt and pepper. It also suggests sprinkling half of the spices in the bottom of the roasting pan, which seemed rather odd.
It was worthwhile, but it did seem a bit bland and a bit tough. I didn't notice the spices underneath making any difference. However, when I used the pork in a stirfry the following day, it was really tasty to have bits of coriander and fennel seed dropping into my dinner.
I think I'll keep searching for a favourite pork belly recipe.
There are pics, but we were so keen on eating, we didn't actually take any of it cooked...