I enjoy having a roast on over the weekend, it feeds us well and gives me cold meat for sandwiches during the week and the house smells like a home!
I find that the cheaper cuts of meat really LOVE long slow cooking, although this shoulder has had it’s bone removed it still benefits from slower cooking and you can still have the crackling too. I like to aim for “spoonable” meat with these cuts, literally falling apart, in fact, the string and crackling are the only things holding this shoulder together, yummy! Serves 6 plus leftovers.
While the oven is on you can utilise the heat to roast some beetroot for the beetroot and chocolate brownies or wrap some medium to large potatoes in foil and serve these baked potatoes with your roast.
Ingredients
2kg piece of boned pork shoulder, skin on and scored, the butcher can do this for you.
a few sprigs of thyme, rosemary, oregano and parsley, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 onion, sliced into 1cm rounds, do not separate the layers
250mls white wine
250mls water
salt and pepper
Method
Preheat oven to 220 degrees Centigrade.
Take the shoulder and open with the skin down.
Rub the garlic all over the flesh side of the meat, season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the chopped herbs.
Take some cooking twine and cut into six 30cm lengths. Place a chopping board vertically on your work surface, the idea is that the cooking twine will follow the same lines as the scoring on the skin.
Space the six pieces of twine on your board, spacing them a couple of centimetres apart. Lay the shoulder on top.
Now, if you are really lucky you will have a willing helper to help with the stringing up.I don’t use any fancy knots, a Grannie knot will do the trick here!
I tend to start on the central strings and work my way out, it’s ok if your twine/string goes into the cuts on the skin.
Work your way up and down the strings until they are all done. Cut off the tails of the string.
Now, sprinkle some more salt on the skin and rub it in well, this will help your crackling.
In your roasting pan, spread out the onion, this will work as a rack for your meat.
Pop the meat on top and whack in the oven for 30mins, this seals your meat.
Now turn the oven down to 160degrees centigrade, add the wine and water to the roasting tin and cover with tin foil. Pop back in the oven for 5-6hrs.
Turn the oven back up to 220 degrees Centigrade and roast for a further 30mins to allow the skin to crackle, keep an eye on it, you may need to turn the pan around but it’s easy to burn the skin so be watchful!
Take the meat out and set aside, covered in foil while you get on with the gravy.
Add 500mls water to the roasting tin and slowly heat on the stove top, using a spoon, scrape the pan to get all the sediment off, bring to the boil.
Seive and pour into your gravy boat/jug. I don’t tend to thicken this gravy, however, you can with a paste made of corn flour and water.
To do this, seive the gravy into a clean pan. In a bowl combine 4 tablespoons of cornflour with enough water to make it into a cream like consistency.
Add the corn flour mix to the pan and stirring constantly bring up to the boil. It will appear “milky” initially and once the gravy has thickened it will return to its original dark colour.
Serve with baked potatoes and some greens.
Cooking Up The Pantry 