Aga Slow Cooked Pork Food

SLOW-ROAST PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• In a small bowl, mix the treacle, cider vinegar, paprika, cumin, mustard powder and chilli powder until smooth. Using a sharp knife, make deep slashes in the skin of the pork shoulder to cut through the skin and fat layer, but not the meat. Place the joint, skin-side down, in a large dish and rub the spice paste into the meat (not the fat). Turn skin-side, cover tightly with cling film and put in the fridge overnight, or for 24 hrs to give the pork maximum flavour.
• Heat oven to 150C/130C fan/gas 2. Transfer the pork, skin-side up, to a deep roasting tin, rub 1 tbsp sea salt onto the skin and pour 500ml water into the bottom of the roasting tin. Cover tightly with foil and roast in the oven for 5 hrs.
• Remove the foil, turn up the oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and cook for a further 1 hr 30 mins or until the pork is very tender and the skin has turned to crispy crackling.
• Once the pork is ready, take it out of the roasting tin, cover with foil and leave to rest. Pour the juices from the roasting tin into a jug and leave to separate. Pour off the fat layer and transfer the remaining juices to a large sauté pan. Simmer over a high heat, stirring, until reduced to a rich gravy.
• Once rested, cut the pork into pieces - it should pull apart with very little effort - and break the crackling into shards. Serve the pork and crackling with the gravy poured over and mustard mash, honey-roasted carrots and quick pickled red cabbage on the side (see goes well with below).

SLOW COOKER PORK LOIN

Steps:

• Lightly crush the fennel seeds with the leaves from the thyme and the garlic in a pestle and mortar. Add 1 tbsp oil and plenty of salt and pepper, then bash to a rough paste. Rub all over the pork, then cover and chill for up to 24 hrs, if you have time (2 hrs if not).
• Set your slow cooker to a low heat. Pour a kettleful of boiling water over the shallots, then set aside for 2 mins until cool enough to handle - this will make them easier to peel. Cut off the root and remove the papery skins. Heat the remaining oil in a large casserole or frying pan large enough to fit the pork. Brown the shallots for a few mins then tip into the slow cooker. Add the celeriac and apples, season well and give them a mix.
• Brown the pork in the same pan, on all sides, not forgetting the ends. Sit on top of the veg and apples, fat-side up, nestling the joint in a little so you can fit the lid on. Pour the wine into the frying pan and bubble for a minute, scraping the bottom of the pan to pick up any tasty bits. Pour in the stock, honey and mustard, bubble for another min, then pour over the pork. Cover with a lid and cook on low for 5-6 hrs (depending on slow cooker size), turning the pork and stirring the veg halfway through cooking.
• Remove the pork, wrap in foil and leave to rest for 10 mins before carving to serve alongside the veg with roast potatoes and greens.

NIGELLA LAWSON SLOW ROASTED AROMATIC SHOULDER OF PORK

Steps:

• The day before you plan to serve the pork, preheat your oven (make sure it's clean) to the highest heat possible.
• Sit pork skinside up on rack in a roasting tin.
• Chop garlic and ginger, and then pound to a paste in a pestle and mortar, add chilli or chilli flake and 1 tbsp of oil and 2 tbsp vinegar until spreadable.
• Rub this paste all over scored skin, pushing it into the cut lines of the rind. Place pork in oven and cook 30 minutes.
• In bowl that paste was in, pour the rest of the oil and vinegar. When pork has been in oven half an hour remove it from the oven, switch heat down to 120 degrees Celsius
• Turn pork over (best to use oven gloves for this, though they will get dirty). Pour oil and vinegar over the underside (now the top of the pork)and put back in the low-heated oven for 23 hours.
• About half an hour before you're ready to eat, turn oven back to the highest it will go, remove pork and turn it back crackling side up. Put it back in the oven for 30 minutes to get it hot and crisp. It may need another 10 minutes to get it really crisp.
• Remove pork from oven, slice off the crackling and break it into pieces. Carve meat into slices and serve with crackling.

SLOW COOKER PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Remove the fat from the pork shoulder (you can get your butcher to do this bit for you). Season the pork with salt and pepper then heat the oil in a large frying pan over a medium to high heat. Brown the pork shoulder on all sides then transfer to a slow cooker. Add all the other ingredients, then cook on low for 6-8 hours until the meat pulls apart when pressed with two forks.
• Remove the meat, place on a plate and shred it with two forks. Remove the herbs from the sauce and squeeze the garlic cloves out of their skins back into the pot. Put the meat back into its sauce for wonderfully tender and moist slow cooker pork. Serve as an alternative to your Sunday roast with roasted new potatoes, or with a big green salad, mustard and warmed baguettes.