I had a great day yesterday, a good stint at the local boozer, a snowball fight, great company and great food and drink all day long. And what better way to treat friends on a cold winter eve than by serving up a roast of some description.
Personally I'm not a massively keen birds (the avian type that is), I'd much rather go for the bigger beasts and joints like a fore rib of beef or a leg of lamb, in my opinion they just taste a lot better!
Yesterday I went for shoulder of pork (boned & rolled), 3 kilos of it! It is such a tasty bit of meat and pretty cheap too, my piece cost just under £14. So after having some smoked salmon on toast for breakkie and a cuppa I started by making a spice rub for the pork.
For a joint of that size you'll need:
6-8 cloves
4 tbsp of fennel seeds
2 tbsp of coriander seeds
2 tbsp of black pepper corns
3-4 large pinches of rock salt
4 garlic cloves
zest of 1 lemon
1 dry chilli
Bash it all up in a pestle and mortar until you have, well, a paste. Score the skin of the pork (or just get your butcher to do this in advance), drizzle in a little olive oil and work the paste into the skin and all over the joint. Cover, refrigerate and leave for at least a few hours.
This should now leave you to prepare any other meal components (we later made a celeriac gratin and spiced apple sauce which I'll write up another time), or just go to the pub! Just make upon your return you bring with you a small bottle of dry cider.
When you're ready to roll preheat the oven to as hot as it will get (around 230 degrees) rest the pork on a rack in a roasting tin and slide it in for 25 mins skin side up. A good tip is to turn the joint upside down, prod it with a skewer or carving fork a few times and squeeze the lemon you zested all over. Turning the joint upside down will allow it to retain moisture as it cooks because the fat and juices can't escape through the skin. Slide back in the oven at 150 degrees and cook for another hour.
Now pour about a 100ml of your cider over the meat so that it trickles into the roasting tin and slide back in for 1 more hour. During this period occasionally pour more of cider over the meat, you don't need to use it all.
When the timer goes turn the heat back up to around 230 degrees, turn the pork skin side up again and cook for a final 20-30 mins just to crisp it up again. Remove and allow to rest making sure friends and pets don''t get too close. Seriously, the pork will be to die for. Serve with whatever sides you prefer but just make sure you have a dollop of apple sauce (home-made or bought in). I'd suggest serving all this with a medium bodied white, high in acidity to cut through the fattiness of the pork, try a Chablis, it will work really well...
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