Crackling Pork Leg Joint With Roasted Apples Food

ROAST PORK WITH CRACKLING

Steps:

• If you have time, rub salt in the pork skin 2 hours before cooking and leave it uncovered in the fridge. Heat the oven to 230C/210C fan/gas 8. Turn the pork rind-side down and with a small knife make about 6 deep incisions along the meat. Poke a sliver of garlic, a piece of rosemary and bay in each incision and turn the pork the right way up. If you didn't salt the pork earlier salt the skin now.
• Mix the carrot, onion and apple and scatter along the middle of a shallow roasting tray to make a bed for the pork to sit on. Sit the pork on the vegetables and rub the skin with the oil. Place the pork in the oven and leave for 15 mins then turn the heat down to 180C/160C fan/gas 4 and continue to roast for 1hr 30 mins. If after this time you don't have brilliant crackling turn the heat up again and check every 5 mins until the skin has crackled.
• Remove the pork from the roasting tray to a board to rest and pour off all but about 2 tbsp of fat from the tray. If your tray is robust enough to go on the heat then do so, if not scrape the contents into a shallow saucepan and place on the heat. Stir the flour in with the veg and cook until you have a mushy, dark amber paste then splash in the cider and bubble down to a thick paste again. Pour in the stock and simmer everything for 8-10 mins until you have thickened gravy. Strain the sauce into another saucepan pushing as much puréed apple as you can through the sieve. Simmer again and season to taste.
• Carve the pork loin with crackling attached into slices using a serrated knife and serve with your favourite vegetables and the apple and cider gravy.

ROAST PORK & APPLES

Steps:

• Heat oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Tip the onion into a roasting tin and put the pork shoulder on top. Rub the pork skin with the oil and sprinkle with salt and the fennel seeds, if using. Tuck the garlic cloves under the side of the pork. Roast for 30 mins or until the skin begins to crackle up, blister and brown.
• Reduce heat to 180C/160C fan/gas 3, add the apples to the tin, and roast for about 2 hrs or until the meat is very tender when tested with a sharp knife. Lift the pork out to rest and spoon out the apple and onion.
• While the pork rests, make the gravy. Tip all the fat out of the tin, then put it over a low heat. Add a splash of stock, scraping any sticky bits off the bottom with a wooden spoon. Pour in the remaining stock, then bring everything to the boil. Squash in the garlic and remove the skin. Strain the gravy through a sieve into a jug. Serve the pork and crackling in slices with the roasted apple, onion and gravy, and either roast or mashed potatoes.

PORK AND CRACKLING

Steps:

• Lay out your pork on a board and rub some salt and 1 teaspoon chopped rosemary into the scored lines, trying to get this into every bit by pushing and rubbing in. In a pestle and mortar smash up the fennel seeds, then the garlic and remaining chopped rosemary, and rub this into the meat ? not the skin, or it will burn. Place in a large roasting tray with the balsamic vinegar, bay and olive oil. Leave for about 1/2 hour to marinate.
• Meanwhile, preheat your oven to its highest temperature and brown the bones. Rub the skin of the pork with lots of sea salt ? this will help puff it up and dry it out. Place the pork directly on the bars at the top of the oven. Finally add the browned bones and vegetables to the leftover balsamic marinade, add 570ml, 1 pint water and put into the oven directly under the pork. As the pork cooks all the goodness drips from it into the tray. This liquid will then become your gravy. You also get quite charred bar marks on the base of the pork.
• The pork will take about 1 hour to cook. After 20 minutes turn the temperature down to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Once the pork is cooked, remove it from the oven on the rack and place on a piece of foil to save any juices. Allow to rest for at least 10 minutes. Finish off any vegetables that you are going to serve with it and make a gravy out of the juices in the tray which was underneath the pork.
• Put the bones, the liquid and the vegetables into a large pan. Add some water to the tray that contained the bones and vegetables, as there will be some Marmite-like, sticky stuff on the bottom to the tray which is very tasty. Reboil the water, scrape off all the goodness from the bottom of the tray and then pour everything into the pan. Bring to the boil, shaking occasionally, remove any oil, grease or scum from the top, then pass the contents through a sieve, discarding all the vegetables and bones. You can reduce and then correct the seasoning, to taste.

LEG OF PORK WITH ROASTED PEARS AND ROSEMARY

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to fan 210°C/conventional 230°C (450°F)/gas 8. Score the skin of the pork with a very sharp knife in slashes about 5mm apart, cutting through the skin but not right through the fat - better still, ask your butcher to do it for you as the slashing is part of the secret of good crackling. Rub a little oil all over the meat with your hands, then scatter with the rosemary and season well.
• Re-shape the pork into a joint, tie it at intervals with string then put it in a roasting tin and rub the skin first with oil and then generously with salt (preferably flakes). Roast for 30 minutes to get the crackling going, then turn the oven down to fan 170°C (330°F)/conventional 190°C/gas 5, and roast for a further 2 hours 40 minutes for medium or 3 hours for well done. Don't baste or you won't get nice crisp crackling.
• To make the HONEY SAUCE:.
• Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed pan and add the carrot, celery and onion. Cook in the butter until they are just starting to brown, then quickly add the peppercorns. Spoon in the honey, increase the heat, and cook until you smell the honey caramelising, then add the vinegar - the mixture will spit. Pour in the wine and boil to reduce until there is only a little liquid left. Stir in the stock and boil to reduce again until you have a slightly syrupy gravy. Strain and set aside.
• PEARS:.
• Start the pears 10 minutes before the pork is due to come out of the oven. Melt the butter, sugar and vinegar in a large frying pan, toss in the pears and turn them in the mixture for a minute or two until coated.
• FINISHING TOUCHES:.
• When the pork is cooked, lift from the tin, cover and leave to rest out of the oven for 30 minutes before carving. Increase the oven to fan 180°C/conventional 200°C/gas 6. Skim the fat off the juices in the tin, then tip the juices into the honey sauce. Put the pears in the tin, spoon over the sugar mixture, then roast for 20-25 minutes. Serve the pork in the tin or on a roasting platter with the roast pears around it, and the vegetables and honey sauce alongside.
• VARIATION:.
• Replace half the pears with apple halves, then throw some whole plums in for the last 10 minutes of cooking.