Pork shoulder is without doubt, one of our most favourite joints to roast for Sunday Dinner! Giving the pork a quick hot blast in the first stages of the cook allows the rind the crisp up and render the deliciously light and crunchy crackling that we all love! Slowly roasting the pork for 6 hours gives such a satisfyingly tender result, the meat simply just falls away from the bone!

Recipe

• 2 kg Honeywell shoulder of pork, bone-in, skin on (ask us to score the rind for you!)
• sea salt
• black pepper
• 2 red onions, halved
• 2 carrots, peeled and halved lengthways
• 2 sticks celery, halved
• 1 bulb garlic, skin on, broken into cloves
• 6 bay leaves
• 600 ml water

Method

• Preheat your oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
• Place the Pork into a roasting dish and rub salt into the scores pulling the skin Brush any excess salt off the surface then turn it over. Season the underside of the meat with a few pinches of salt and pepper.
• Place your pork, skin-side up, in the roasting tray and pop in the preheated oven. Roast for 30 minutes, until the skin of the pork has started to crisp up and you can see it turning into crackling. At this point, turn the heat down to 170°C/325°F/gas 3, cover the pork with a double layer of tinfoil, pop back in the oven and roast for a further 4 and a half hours.
• Take out of the oven, take the foil off, and baste the meat with the fat in the bottom of the tray. Carefully transfer the pork to a chopping board. Spoon out the fat (you can save this for your roasties!) Add all the veg, garlic and bay leaves to the tray and stir them into the fat. Place the pork back on top of everything and return to the oven without the foil to roast for another hour. By this time the meat should be beautifully soft and tender.
• Carefully move the meat to a serving dish, cover again with tinfoil and leave to rest for a good 30 minutes. Spoon away any fat in the tray, then add the water or stock and place the tray on the hob. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to scrape up all those lovely sticky tasty bits on the bottom of the tray. When you’ve got a nice, dark gravy, pour it through a sieve into a bowl, using your spoon to really push all veg through the sieve. Add a little more salt and pepper if it needs it.

Serve the pork and crackling with your jug of gravy and some roast potatoes or pull apart with two forks to create that yummy pulled pork and serve in buns with apple sauce!

If you enjoyed reading this post, why not take a look at our slow cook heroes post http://www.honeywellfarmshop.com/our-slow-cook-heroes/