"My two favourite animals are pork and bacon" - Homer

Alright then, Char is sleeping and I’m hacking her blog! I’m taking over the Internet but it’s all for a good cause, as I’m about to drop on you all, the most banging Roast Pork recipe around the traps. Inspired by Justin North, with a little Foxy twist, this recipe is sure to impress your family and friends. If you follow this recipe to a tee they will want you to cook every roast from now on – so you better cancel all your plans for a few Sundays!  Key to perfect roast pork? Juicy succulent pork – check, delicious vegies – check, scintillating sauce – check.  Let’s do this! Oh wait silly me I nearly forgot about the crackling! I have un-locked, with some Justin North assistance, the Holy grail of crackling, kind of like Colonel Sander’s secret herbs and spices, let’s just say I think I have a black belt in crackling.

Righto get your pork piece, I bought a rolled pork but any nice roasting cut will do. Make sure you get plenty of crackling and a good bit of fat between the meat and soon to be crackling.  I unrolled the pork and cut it into two equal size pieces. It will cook faster this way and you will be able to get you crackling nice and even.  Score using your razor sharp knife down the outside. Most pork will come scored diagonally so you will make nice little diamonds on the outside.

Take some good quality salt and massage the hell out of your pork piece – top only. Be liberal with it! Rub it in for a good 1-2 minutes then place the pork in the fridge, upside down on a wire rack, for 4 hours. This process will draw out some moisture and without getting technical will go through a process of what I call ‘Crackleprepisis’ = or prepare to get your crunch on!

Now to cook a good roast you have to know the timing of events – meat takes longer than vegies, some vegies take longer than others – aghhhh what first??? Also you need to take in to consideration the size of the pork piece!!! I’m going to leave the timing to you! I’ve done everything else for you, time for you to pull your weight!! 

Prep up your vegies whilst your pork is in the fridge.

Put your oven on at 180deg.

Wipe off your excess salt, add a splash of vegetable oil to a pan. Put this on a medium heat and place the pork crackling side down into the pan -monitor your heat! Turn down if it’s getting too hot in the kitchen!!  You do not want this to burn the crackling, just caramelise – mmmmm caramelise!. 10 minutes of this and you are good to place it in the oven.

This is the part when you can say ‘here’s some I prepared earlier’! Get your vegies out and let’s do this.

1.     Roasted Parsnip = is the bomb! Peel and roast your parsnips at 180 deg, cover with olive oil and throw in a few garlic cloves at the same time.

2.     Potato puree – peel about 8 -10 smallish potatoes and boil in a saucepan – you don’t want to have them turn to mush in the saucepan, so keep an eye on them. Always use cold water when boiling you potatoes so the will cook evenly! Once the garlic is cooked from the parsnip throw the cloves in and add a dollop of cream. I like to use a blender to make my puree, whiz it up till it is silky smooth. Add cream to get the balance right, start with less cream and add as you like.

3.     Carrots – splurge and get yourself some nice little baby carrots – you know the ones with the little green tops. If you are feeling cheap go through the self serve checkout and just call them regular carrots! I don’t endorse any form of crime but it is for a good cause.  Cook in the oven, throw a dash of honey on them when you place them in to add a little extra touch. These will not take too long to cook so hold your horses and wait till the meat is ½ ish cooked.

4.   Scintillating sauce – Grab your trusty pan and add a big old dollop of butter, thyme and finely diced eschallots. Just soften these up and be careful not to burn this. When you can smell the herbs and the eschallots are soft add your pan juices from the roast in the oven. Add some chicken stock and reduce down till you have a nice little sauce. You may need to add a little more stock as you go to get the amount you need right.

Back to the pork! As this bad boy is cooking away you need to monitor the crackling situation. If you think it is looking a little dark you may need to cover with some aluminium foil. If its not crisp to your liking you may need to give it a last minute blast of heat to put the final crunch into it.

Plate this sucker up. Like the timing, I’m gonna leave this to you but I think place your potato puree down first, take you sliced meat and layer it across the potato, then strategically place the carrots and parsnips around the meat. I like to add them in little stacks to add some height to the dish. Generously pour the sauce over the meat and top with a couple of thyme sprigs to spruce it up, just nice!!!

Good luck to you good people! Let me know how you go and don’t let Charmaine know I hacked her blog! Peace out!