Big Fat Pig Sunday - Part 1

Roast Loin Of Pork With Crackling

Last Sunday was the Wimbledon men's final, so I thought I would prepare a Sunday roast to go with some quality tennis.

I bought a beautiful piece of pork loin from a local butcher, and also picked up a couple of trotters. I had never cooked trotters before, so it was quite an interesting experiment. You can find out more in part 2 :)

Roast pork is actually quite simple to cook: herbs + salt + pepper + rub + roast. The key is the crackling. In this recipe, I took the crackling off while the meat was resting. Then cooked it in a high temperature oven to achieve the perfect crunchy texture. I feel like cheating a bit taking the crackling off... I remember seeing the perfect crackling in the roast hog dish made by Tom Kerridge from this year's Great British Menu - it was perfectly intact with the meat. One day... hmmm... maybe I can do it as well.

Roast Loin Of Pork With Crackling

Serves 2

For the pork

1kg Pork loin, at room temperature

1 tbsp Rapeseed oil

A couple of sage leaves

1 tbsp Freshly ground black pepper

Lots of sea salt

For roasting

2 medium onions

2 medium carrots

A handful of sage leaves

Preheat oven to fan 220C. Use a sharp knife to score across the skin diagonally. The scoring has to be quite deep, but without cutting the meat.

Pad dry the pork with kitchen towels, it has to be absolutely dry. After drying, I normally wrap the pork in kitchen towels, and then leave it by the window for 20 minutes before seasoning. 

Drizzle the rapeseed oil on the pork, give the meat a gentle massage all over with some salt and pepper.  Tear the sage leaves in half to release the flavour, continue to massage the pork until you can smell the sage from the meat itself.

Get a handful of sea salt, rub it into the skin where the scoring is. Be generous with the salt. Sprinkle some more on top when done.

Peel the onions and carrots, then cut them into chunks. Put them in a roasting tray together with the sage leaves, a bit of oil, salt and pepper. Place the pork on top of the vegetables, then put into the oven for 20 minutes, or until the skin turns golden and starts to crisp.

Lower the temperature to 150C, then roast for further 2 hours.

When the pork is done, run a knife between the crackling and the meat, the crackling should come off easily. Move the meat to a plate/tray, cover it with foil, then rest it for 20 minutes. 

Turn the oven up to 220C. Turn the crackling over, then cut the thick layer of fat attached to the the skin. Don't remove it all, leave around 1 to 2mm of fat to ensure the texture is crunchy yet slightly chewy. Place the crackling on a tray, and return to the oven for 20 minutes.

You can make a gravy from the roasting vegetables and juices while waiting for the crackling to cook. 

Perfect with some apple sauce.

Enjoy!