Roast Pork

Nearly everyone knows how to make a roast dinner, but how can you make it stand out from the usual Sunday roast? The difference between a good roast and a great roast is simple – the gravy.

My tips to a great roast apply to whichever meat you choose, but this post is about our favourite – roast pork with crackling. I tend to buy the shoulder as it is a smaller cut of meat than the leg, but still provides more than enough for my family, as well as some leftovers.

Get roasting

A really simple way to pack some flavour into a roast is to use some spice. My favourites are fennel seeds, cumin, or star anise. Simply mix some of your favourite spice with equal parts of salt (sea salt is nice and mild). Rub it over the meat (saving some for the veggies later) and then put it into a roasting pan and straight into a hot oven – 250 degrees, or as hot as yours will go – and leave it for 20 minutes.

During this time, prepare your vegetables. Peel and cut up potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin and carrots, or any root veggies you choose. Put them in a large bowl, and add some olive oil – about 2 tablespoons – and then the rest of the spice and salt mixture. Toss the vegetables around in the bowl to coat them with the oil and salt / spice mixture – don’t worry about being too rough, bashing them up a bit is a good thing!

Another great way to add flavour is to add a few cloves of garlic and an onion or two. Simply peel, cut in half or so and chuck in the bowl with the rest of the veggies.

After the first 20 minutes, turn the oven down to 160 degrees, and add the garlic, onions, potatoes, and carrots. Once all that has been cooking for another 45 minutes, add the rest of the vegetables. The total cooking time depends on the size of the roast and the size you cut the vegetables, but a 1.5kg roast will take another 1.5 to 2 hours.

The gravy

Now the important part – the gravy. The best way to make the gravy is directly in the roasting pan to extract all the flavour from the roasting process, so remove the meat and veg and set aside in a warm oven and place the pan on the heat. The garlic should be very soft, so simply mash and incorporate into the gravy.

Instead of the traditional flour gravy, I prefer to use cornflour as I think the gravy is lighter and tastier (it’s more like a ‘jus’ than a gravy). I add 2 teaspoons of cornflour to a small jug, and pour in about 2 tablespoons of chicken stock. Mix until the cornflour is all dissolved and there are no lumps and then add to pan and combine with roasting juices. Continue to add more chicken stock to get a decent volume, but make sure you keep a nice consistency, and then continue to cook the gravy out. Don’t forget to season to taste.

To Serve

Carve the pork and then prepare the plates for serving. It can take some time to prepare everything for serving so keep the oven warm just in case. Add meat, veggies, and maybe some peas to add a bit of colour – don’t forget the crackling. If the crackling is a little soft, place in the microwave for a minute or so to crisp it up. Enjoy.

Lastly, left overs from a roast pork are fantastic and can be used in many different ways for other meals. Keep an eye out for posts about using left over roast meat and veggies!