Just before Christmas I did a roast dinner for our house + the usual guests. This added to about twelve people in the end, but could easily have been more. We had already celebrated Thanksgiving, and being nearly Christmas anyway nobody wanted a third Turkey in such a short space of time, but somebody did request Crackling... so a shoulder of pork it was. ROAST DINNERS ARE NOT THAT DIFFICULT. The key is all about timing, and delegation. I didn't have to touch a peeler. Rolled Pork shoulder, Local Butchers, ( £ 28 / 4 kg )
King Edwards Potatoes, Sainsburys, ( 80 p / kg )
Carrots, donated by unknown housemate.
Celery, found in the fridge.
Parsnips, donated by a friend, given to him by his Mum.
Apple sauce, donated by a friend.
Paxo Stuffing Mix, Sainsburys, ( on offer £ 2 / 2 packs )
Four Onions, Sainsburys ( 80 p / kg )
Small amount of flour, sainsburys ( 55 p / kg )
Lo Salt, Sainsburys ( £ 1.50 / 350 g )
Kitchen Craft Roasting rack, Cargo ( £ 4 )
For the Pork:
This was a huge piece of meat, and alot of people. I was anxious not to undercook the pork, and the timings I had in my head were for 3-5 people. Not for a massive beasty bit of meat like this one ( to serve 12, plus left overs for sandwiches ).
Our oven an electric fan oven, old, slightly unreliable. After some research, I decided I would give the pork 25 minutes at 220C+, then ~ 4 hours in the oven at ~ 170C, then ~ 30 minutes to rest. So the meat needed to be in the oven 5 hours before serving. So that was the maths step.
However before the pork goes in the oven I wanted to ensure really good crackling. So the night before I took the shoulder out of the fridge and unwrapped 'him'. There was plenty of fat on the top of the joint ( at least 3/4 of an inch ). Most boned joints usually come held together with string as this one was, you do not need to remove the string; it is there for a reason. The fat is scored with shallow cuts through the skin and into the fat layer. If you have a really sharp knife, I would advise scoring the skin even further, into half centimeter strips across the piece of meat ( I find this the easiest way of serving ). The more cuts there the crispier the crackling will be. Now you want to get the pork skin as dry as possible - patting 'him' down with kitchen towel, then I packed him with Salt ( don't be mean with this, the main purpose is to draw water out of the fatty layer and won't stay on until serving ).
Note: Lo-Salt is not a con. It contains Potassium Chloride rather than the Sodium Chloride in table salt. Unless you are suffering from kidney disease or other Potassium controlled diet, Lo-Salt is normally healthier.
Roughly 5 hours before serving, I came back to the kitchen and turned the oven up as far as it goes. Most of the salt was then rubbed off, and the rind patted down again with kitchen roll dry it out as much as possible.
For the Gravy:
The base a large roasting tin was filled with about an inch of water, along with:
Two onions were peeled and cut into rough quarters
A clove of garlic
Three sticks of celery
Now and then I checked on this, and topped up the water level.
For the Pork and Gravy:
The 'dried' out pork was placed on a rack, over the water in the large roasting tin, and the whole thing placed in the oven. Remembering to turn the temperature down after 25 minutes. If any bits of pork are starting to look a little two crispy or brown at any point then cover these in foil (shiny side out), to stop them from burning.
For the Potatoes:
To get roast potatoes which are both soft in the middle and crispy on the outside, they need to be peeled, chopped into serving size pieces, then pre-boiled, and then dried out.
I would allow at least an hour in combined cooking time for the potatoes, meaning they should go on to boil ~40 minutes before the pork comes out to rest. Once the potatoes are soft to the stab of a fork, drain and put to one side in a colander. I shake my potatoes in potato flour with a tiny bit of salt, and leave them to dry them out a little.
The moment the turkey comes out to rest, put a tray of fat (oil, goose fat, pork fat... whatever) in the hot oven. I used sunflower oil, because it was to hand and fairly cheap, but this really isn't the best. When the fat is sizzling, quickly tip in the potatoes shaking them a little so get as much of the surface in contact with the oil as possible. It is helpful to use a tray with high sides for this, to get the best 'shaking' with the least burns, but I didn't have one so just had to be careful.
Tip: To test if the fat is hot enough drop a tiny amount of the potato/flour/salt from the colander ( a tiny pinch, not a tiny potato ), into the fat and see if it sizzles.
The potatoes stay in the oven for ~30minutes, hopefully until crispy and golden.
For the Stuffing:
Packet stuffing can be a little boring, and we had learnt from Thanksgiving that this group of people get through the stuffing very fast. So I mixed up too trays of stuffing mix with hot water as instructed on the packet, then I added: extra onion, left over mince meat, pearl barley, half a stale baguette turned into crumbs, garlic cloves, rosmary, some flour and an egg... and any number of other things that were to hand. Really anything goes here as long as you make sure all of the ingredients are properly mixed in, and you allow enough time for anything potentially dangerous to cook. This was a good chance to clean out the fridge before Christmas. Each of the two trays of stuffing mix were slightly different, and really tasty.
My stuffing was in the oven for about 25 minutes.
For the other veg:
Any other vegetables that need peeling/chopping can really be done at any convenient point before the pork comes out to rest. Peeled vegetables should be stored under cold water, maybe with a squeeze of lemon juice if you have it.
Peas or runner beans if you want them, boil in water for about 5 minutes, then strain.
Carrots boil in about 20 minutes, then strain. ( Ours were terrible carrots, so maybe would been improved by roasting. )
Parsnips boil in the same time, but you may want to crisp them up in the oven aswell. I make a point of chopping these in such a way that they absolutely cannot be mistaken for a roast potato - surprise parsnips are never fun. I finished mine off for the last five minutes in the oven with a little bit of cheese, but honey is also really tasty.
For resting the pork:
When you take the pork out of the oven, the first thing you do is close the oven. From this minute on their is sure to be opening and closing of the oven door to check on what is going on inside... but you want to keep as much heat in as possible.
The meat should be well cooked by now, if you have a meat thermometer stab this as close to the center of the joint as is reasonable to check the temperature. Then you look at the crackling. If there are pieces too chewy for your liking then cut these off and put them on an oven tray - even if this means removing all the crackling. This can go back in the oven to crisp up. Then remove the piece of joint to a dish or carving board, cover it in foil and then a dry tea towel, and ignore this while you sort out the vegetables and stuffing.
For the gravy:
I used a little of water that had been used to boil carrots, the contents of that roasting tray under the pork, a bay leaf, and a little flour to thicken. This mixture will look pretty gross at first, and with my gravy their was an awful lot of fat. We let the pan settle... and one my guest-turned-useful-assistant calmly skimmed the fat off with a ladle, ( there was about half a pint ).
Tip: If the liquid from the roasting tin is too salty add a raw potato cut in half, this should absorb some of the salt. You can then remove and discard the potato - or do whatever you like with the potato really none of my business.
What is left after you have removed the fat can be left to simmer for as long as needed, then thickened up with more flour.
Serve
