Perfect roast pork with crackling to die for…

A FRESHLY roasted rolled loin of pork coated with crisp crackling is always a crowd pleaser with my friends on a Sunday. This week I am going to add a touch of Italian influences to a classic roast pork dish, that will have you craving left over cold pork and apple chutney rolls for days afterwards.

For this recipe we will be using a shoulder of pork, which has a great fat to meat ratio, to ensure a succulent tasty flavour once slow-roasted. When cooked slowly the shoulder rewards us with an easy-to-carve joint, with meat that will just fall off the bone and onto your plate.

You can ask your butcher to score the skin of the shoulder if you are not confident with a Sharpe knife. This will help all the spices and the seasoning to reach deep into the flesh, giving a rewarding hint of fennel and chilli. Or you can do it yourself with a Sharpe knife by gently slicing shallow slices across the shoulder.

Slow roasted pork marries well with autumn vegetables like butternut squash, wild mushrooms or rich, healthy buttered curly kale, which will boost our immune systems for the coming winter.
Oh! And one other thing – don’t forget the warm applesauce, which you can tart up by scraping a small vanilla bean into it right before serving.

But for now let’s get started on our pork shoulder.

What you need:
2-5kg pork shoulder, skin scored
Good quality sea salt
Light olive oil
Black pepper in grinder
4 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried thyme
2 small onions, halved
2 carrots, halved
3 cloves of garlic
2 cups of vegetable stock or water

What to do:
Set the oven to 200 degrees

Place all your dried ingredients into a mortar and pestle, or a plastic bag, with 4 tablespoons of salt. Crush the spice mix (if you are using the plastic bag option crush with a small pan) to combine into a tasty spice rub.

Place the onions and carrots in the roasting tray, and lay the shoulder on top of the veg.

Drizzle a small quantity of oil over the shoulder and rub the spice mix all over the shoulder.

Place the shoulder into the pre-heated oven for 30 mins, until the skin starts to puff and develop its crackling.

Once this happens remove the tray from the oven and decrease the heat.

Add the stock and garlic. Wrap in tin foil and bake for 3.5 hrs.

Remove from the oven and cool for 15 mins, spooning the liquid in the tray while you prepare the vegetables, and that vanilla applesauce to add sweetness to the shoulder.

Serve and enjoy!