Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder With Carrots Onions And Garlic Recipes

6-HOUR SLOW-ROASTED PORK SHOULDER

Steps:

• Remove the pork from the fridge for 1 hour before you want to cook it, to let it come up to room temperature.
• Preheat the oven to 220°C/425°F/gas 7.
• Place the pork on a clean work surface, skin-side up. Get yourself a small sharp knife and make scores about 1cm apart through the skin into the fat, but not so deep that you cut into the meat. If the joint is tied, try not to cut through the string.
• Rub sea salt right into all the scores you've just made, pulling the skin apart a little if you need to. Brush any excess salt off the surface then turn it over. Season the underside of the meat with a few pinches of salt and black pepper.
• Place the pork, skin-side up, in a roasting tray and roast for 30 minutes, or until the skin has started to puff 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 snugly with a double layer of tin foil, pop back in the oven and roast for a further 4½ hours.
• Meanwhile, halve the onions, carrots and celery, and break the garlic up into cloves (there's no need to peel them).
• Remove the pork from the oven, take off the foil, and baste the meat with the fat in the bottom of the tray. Carefully transfer to a board, then skim all but 2 tablespoons of excess fat from the tray into a jar, and pop in the fridge for tasty cooking another day.
• 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 place back in the oven without the foil to roast for 1 further hour, or until meltingly soft and tender.
• Carefully move the meat to a serving dish, cover again with tin foil and leave to rest while you make the gravy. Spoon away any fat in the tray, then add the stock (or replace with water, if you prefer) 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 from the bottom of the tray.
• When you've got a nice, dark gravy, pour it through a sieve into jug using your spoon to really push all the goodness of the veg through the sieve. Season to taste, if needed.
• Serve the pork and crackling with the jug of gravy and all the trimmings - a dollop of apple sauce will finish this off perfectly.

SLOW ROAST PORK

Steps:

• First make the spice rub. Grind the bay leaves, fennel, peppercorns and salt with a mortar and pestle to a fine powder. Mix in the lemon zest. Then rub the mixture over the pork, being sure to get it inside the scored skin. Set the pork aside for an hour to come to room temperature and take on the flavours of the rub. Heat the oven to 240°C/220°C fan/gas 9. Mix the carrots, onions, celery and garlic and spread over the base of a medium roasting tin. Place the pork on top, skin side up. Pour around the wine and stock and cover with a large tent of foil. Make sure the foil doesn't touch the pork, and seal it really well around the rim. Roast until the liquid starts to steam and show signs of simmering, around 30-45 minutes (check by lifting up a corner of the foil and taking a peek). Reduce the temperature to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5 and continue roasting, with the foil still in place, until the meat is meltingly tender. This will take 2-2 and a half hours - maybe even 3. Remove the pork to a board and pour all the juices and vegetables into a big sieve set over a pan or bowl. Squish the soft vegetables against the sieve to encourage as much juice and vegetable pulp through as possible until nothing more will come out, then discard the pulp. Heat the grill and position a rack below to accommodate the pork around 8cm below the element. Return the pork to the roasting tin and pour the sauce around the meat. Grill until the skin has crackled to your liking. Keep an eye on it, as a fierce grill can burn it easily. While the skin is crackling the sauce should be bubbling and reducing slightly. If you don't have a grill (as I don't in my Aga), you can opt to cut off the crackling and put it back into a very hot oven to crisp up. In this case reduce the sauce in a small pan. Wrap the joint well in foil and keep covered with a blanket to keep warm. Some juices will have seeped out of the joint while resting, so pour them back into the sauce - so as not to waste the flavour. Use a knife to cut away and divide the crackling, then chop the pork up roughly and serve with pickled quince, mash and greens, making sure everyone gets plenty of sauce.

SLOW-ROASTED PORK SHOULDER WITH CARROTS, ONIONS, AND GARLIC

Steps:

• Combine 2 tbsp., salt and 2 teaspoons pepper in a small bowl and rub the mixture all over the pork. Put the pork, fat side up in a large roasting pan. Cover and refrigerate overnight or up to 3 days.
• Remove pork from the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature for 1 to 1 1/2 hours before cooking.
• Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 300 degrees. Uncover the pork and roast until tender everywhere but the very center when pierced with a fork, 4-4 1/2 hours. Add the onions, carrots, garlic, wine, and 1 cup water to the roasting pan and continue to roast, stirring the vegetables occasionally, until the pork is completely tender, about 1 hour more.
• Remove the roast from the oven and raise the oven termperature to 375 degrees. Using tongs, separate the pork into 8-10 large, rustic chunks and spread out on the pan. If most of the liquid has evaporated, add a splash more of water to the pan to create a little more juice. It shouldn't be soupy.
• Return the pork to the oven and continue to roast until nicely browned on the newly exposed surfaces, about 15 minutes.Remove the pan from the oven, transfer the meat and vegetables to a serving platter, and tent loosely with foil. Allow meat to rest for 20 minutes. Skim the excess fat from the juices and serve the juices with the vegetables and meat.