Sunday Pork Roast

Christmas is coming and I should really be posting some Christmassy recipes and kitchen ideas for some inspiration but I have been so busy recently that I will be doing all this only this coming week. But hopefully, I will still manage to give you at least one or two delicious recipes for this wonderful winter holidays. :)

I went Christmas shopping yesterday – Central London – and you can imagine that after a constant working my way through the crowds, I fancied some hearty, warm and easy to prepare meal for my dinner. In the supermarket, I saw this beautiful 5kg pork shoulder (that I have never done before) and decided to buy it. After a consultation with my grandma who is a pork specialist in our family (that’s probably why I never had the need to roast pork myself), I found out it’s really easy! Just make scores into the skin, season the hunk of meat and put in the oven. In my case, I split the meat into 2 parts freezing the other half for another weekend. :)

Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder

2-3kg pork shoulder with the skin on

Salt, pepper

Rosemary (preferably fresh, always tastes better :) )

5 bay leaves

1. Make scores through the skin (not too deep so that you don’t cut into the meat); rub the salt into the scores and all around the meat and season the meat with rosemary and bay leaves (I don’t only put the herbs on the top but try to stick them into the meat where possible)
2. Place your pork, skin-side up, into a preheated oven (220°C) and roast for about 30 minutes until the skin starts to puff  up.
3. Then turn the temperature down to 190°C, cover the pork with a tinfoil and roast for further 4 hours. (You will appreciate the length of the roasting as the meat is then very tender, and almost flakes away)
4. After that, remove the tinfoil and roast until the skin is nice and crispy (around another hour).

And the outcome – beautiful!!!

 

As the side to this dish, I made roasted potatoes with onion, chilli, garlic and rosemary.

And the process is very easy.

Just use baby potatoes, leave the skin on, pre-cook them in salted water for about 10 minutes (the time depends on whether you cut them or not) then, them dress them up with olive oil, sprinkle rosemary, chilli, garlic and sliced onion, give it a nice mix and bake on a grill for about 45 minutes or until golden and crispy.

Enjoy!

Posted in: main dishes,pork,roast,Sunday