Mary Berry is not just a baking whizz but also has a range of hearty family meal recipes – one of which is her slow-roast pork which she has perfected the crackling for.
When it comes to the crunch, it’s hard to resist a plate of tender roast pork with perfect crispy crackling.
Roast pork is easy to prepare and tastes too good to be eaten only at Christmas or on special occasions.
Not many ingredients or steps are needed for Mary Berry’s recipe to cook the “perfect” roast pork with her “secret for brilliant cracking”.
What’s more the meat only takes less than 30 minutes to prepare for it to be cooked in two hours.
Ingredients
Hand and spring of pork joint, on the bone with skin scored
Three large onions, thickly sliced
Two garlic cloves, sliced
Eight bay leaves
Small bunch of sage leaves, tied up
700ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
25g butter
25g flour
Salt
Method
Start by preheating your oven to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7 and rub two tablespoons of salt over the skin of the pork.
Put the onions, garlic, bay leaves, sage and stock into a deep roasting tin. Sit the joint on top, skin-side up. Cover the roasting tin with foil and seal the edges tightly. Roast for about 40 minutes.
Once the time is up, turn down the oven temperature to 150C/130C Fan/Gas 2 and cook for two-and-a-half to three hours, or until the meat is “completely tender and falling off the bone”. Mary claimed: “You can also cook pork belly this way.”
After, transfer the pork to a board. Using a spoon, scoop the onions into a bowl, remove the bay and sage and discard. Spoon the onions onto a serving platter, cover and keep warm before straining the stock into a jug.
Then turn the oven up to 220C/200C Fan/Gas 7. Lay a piece of foil on a baking sheet. Carefully remove the pork skin and place it on the foil.
Using scissors, snip into narrow strips. Sprinkle with salt. Cover the pork with foil and keep warm. Slide the baking sheet into the oven and cook the skin for five to 10 minutes, or until it is “crisp and deep golden brown”.
Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan before adding in the flour and stirring it over the heat for a few seconds to make a roux. Whisk in the reserved hot stock over medium-high heat, whisking until the sauce is “thick and smooth”.
Pull the pork off the bone and arrange it next to the onions on the serving platter. Snip the crackling into pieces and serve with the hot gravy in a jug.
