We love a good roast dinner in our house and today I'm making a roast pork dinner
and I'll share with you my tips for the best crackling.
Welcome back to our kitchen where we show you how to make delicious family
friendly recipes. Roast pork dinner with homemade apple sauce, gravy and crispy
crackling is the best!
I've got my oven preheated to 170 C or 325 F and now
we're going to prepare the pork joint.
I've got a two point two kilo or four
point eight pound rolled boneless shoulder I'm going to take off any
butcher string that the joint came with. you want to score the fat in diagonal
lines quite deeply but not so far as to cut into the meat itself cutting the skin
in this way into these little diamonds means you'll get really even crispy
little bites of crackling.
Now turn the pork over and then we're going to mix
together two minced cloves of garlic with a teaspoon each of fresh thyme and
fresh parsley and a little pinch of black pepper as well.
And spread it on the inside of the pork making sure you get any looks and crannies.
Now roll the pork joint back up and secure with three to four pieces of
butcher string.
And then we want to rub a tablespoon of fine grain sea salt all
over the skin.
Place on a wire rack over a roasting tin and roast in the oven for two hours and
30 minutes.
So while the pork is in the oven we're going to make some homemade
apple sauce, I always need to make a massive batch of this because Gracey and
Chris just absolutely devour it. We're going to use either six small cooking
apples or four large cooking apples and we'll peel them and chop them into small
chunks.
Place the apple chunks into a saucepan and toss with the juice of half
a lemon to stop those apples from browning.
Then we sprinkle over four tablespoons of castor or superfine sugar and place
the pan over a low heat. Place the lid on the pan and cook for 20 to 25 minutes
stirring every five minutes until the apples break down and turn it to a thick sauce.
Once the pork has reached the end of the two-hour 30-minute cooking time
remove it from the oven and turn the oven up to 220 C or 425 F.
Now we're going to make the gravy, transfer the juices from the
roasting tin into a saucepan making sure that you scrape up any of the crispy
bits as you go you might need to swill it with a little bit of water just to
help you scrape down some of those crispy bits but make sure you don't
leave any because that's where all the flavor is.
Once you've transferred the meat juices place the pork on the wire rack back in
the roasting tin again place the pork back in the oven at that high
temperature for 20 to 25 minutes and that will allow the skin to really crisp
up, keep a close eye on it though to make sure the skin doesn't burn.
Whilst that crackling is crisping up in the oven we're going to make the gravy and we've
already got the meat juices in the pan and if you find this a big layer of fat
on top you can just spoon some of it off with a metal spoon, then we crumble three
chicken stock cubes into the pan, stir together while pouring in hot vegetable
water about three cups or 720 mil. Bring to the boil and lightly season with salt
and pepper.
I've made a cornstarch slurry with two tablespoons of corn flour or
cornstarch and five tablespoons of cold water and we're just going to stir that
into the gravy using a whisk until we get a lovely velvety smooth consistency.
Remove the pork from the oven and allow it to rest for about 10 minutes before serving.
Just listen to this crackling.
[Crunchy sounds]
And there you go that's my roast pork
dinner with ultimate crispy crackling, rich pork gravy and homemade applesauce.
I'm also serving mine with crispy roast potatoes and some steamed veg, a
definite family favourite.
[Music plays]
[Crunching]
Oh my god thats soo tasty!
mmmmm
mmmmmm, I make good crackling!