July 06, 2020

Crackly Roast Pork by Shaunn Griffiths

By Tom Gibson
Crackly Roast Pork by Shaunn Griffiths

We asked our followers and customers to send us their recipes using Provenance products to win 'Recipe of the Month' This month Shaunn Griffiths won with this mouth-watering Roast Pork Loin. This fail-proof recipe will quickly become be your go-to when entertaining. 

Visit Shaunn's Instagram account to see more of his inspirational recipes @instatiableeater

Ingredients:
2kg Boned and rolled loin of free range pork
2 tbsp Fennel seeds
1 tbsp Salt 
2 Fennel bulbs
2 Onions
2 Carrots
1 Bay leaf

Method:
This method goes against every pork roasting instinct you might have but results in the juiciest meat and crispiest crackling. Ask your butcher to score the skin of the loin, this scoring makes it easier to carve the pork once it is cooked). Put the pork in a deep tray in the fridge uncovered overnight. The aim is to dry the skin as much as possible which makes crackling it easier.
Next day take the pork out of the fridge 2 hours before you want to cook it.
In a mortar and pestle, bash together the fennel seeds and salt to a coarse texture and rub this into the pork skin, getting into each of the skin incisions.

Preheat the oven to 120C, conventional. It is best to use a thermometer placed in the oven to check the temp rather than rely on your oven dial. This is important as  we are cooking more by internal temperature than timing.

Slice the fennel bulbs, onions and carrots into an even thickness of about 1cm and place in a roasting tray. Toss them in a little olive oil.  The vegetables act as a trivet for the pork but also the base of any gravy you can make with the cooking juices. Place the pork, skin side up, on top of the vegetables, and pop in the preheated oven. Cook until a thermometer inserted into the middle of the loin reaches 55-60C. This should take approx 2-2.5hrs hours. Check at 1hr 45mins.

Remove pork and vegetables and rest, lightly covered with foil for 45mins -1hr which should give you time to make your favourite side dishes.

After resting the pork, crank up the oven to the highest setting (260C). Once heated, place pork in the oven for about 20 mins, turning every 5 mins for the skin to crisp. Now is the time to keep a very close eye on it to prevent burning so adjust the timing and heat accordingly.

Remove pork once the skin has crackled and rest again for 10 mins before carving.

This recipe was created by Shaunn Griffiths