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Slow roasted pork in cider with fennel, apple and watercress

Make your taste buds dance – the pork soaks up the goodness of cider with the subtle crunch of fennel, the sweetness of apple, and the freshness of watercress.

Preparation time
30 mins to 1 hour

Cooking time
over 2 hours

Serves
Serves 6–8

By Georgina Hayden
From Saturday Kitchen

Ingredients

For the pork

  • 2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 1 orange, zest only
  • 1 garlic bulb, crushed
  • olive oil
  • 2.2kg/5lb good quality rolled pork shoulder, skin on, finely scored
  • 3 leeks, trimmed and sliced
  • 2 fennel bulbs, trimmed and cut into wedges
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 200ml/⅓ pint dry cider
  • 1 tbsp English mustard
  • 150ml/¼ pint chicken stock
  • splash cider vinegar
  • soft rolls, buttered, to serve (optional)

For the fennel, apple and watercress salad

  • 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • ½ tsp English mustard
  • 1–2 tsp honey, to taste
  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 apples, cored and cut into thin wedges
  • 1 fennel bulb, trimmed
  • 80g/2¾oz watercress
  • few sprigs fresh flatleaf parsley, chopped
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method

  1. To make the pork, grind the fennel seeds in a pestle and mortar with a good pinch of sea salt and pepper until fine. Finely grate in the orange zest and crush in two of the garlic cloves. Muddle in 3 tablespoons of olive oil then rub this mixture all over the pork and leave to one side.

  2. Preheat the oven to 230C/210C Fan/Gas 8. Place a flameproof roasting tray over a low heat on the hob and add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Add the leeks and fennel and start to fry. Stir in the bay leaves, the remaining crushed garlic, cider and mustard. Bring to the boil, reduce the cider by half, then add the chicken stock and bring back to the boil.

  3. Nestle in the pork shoulder and carefully transfer the tray to the oven. Roast for 30 minutes, to give the skin a chance to crackle up, then remove from the oven and cover tightly with kitchen foil. Reduce the oven to 150C/130C Fan/Gas 2 and cook for a further 4–4½ hours until the meat is tender and falling apart.

  4. To make the salad, whisk together the apple cider vinegar, mustard, honey and extra virgin olive oil in a large mixing bowl with a good pinch of salt and pepper until combined. Place the apple wedges on top and then shave in the fennel, using either a mandoline (carefully) or a potato peeler. Add the watercress and chopped parsley and toss everything together.

  5. You can serve the pork once cooked, but if you want to re-crisp up the crackling, turn the oven back up to 230C/210C Fan/Gas 8 for 20 minutes or so. Just keep an eye on it. Skim off any excess fat from the tray and finish with a splash of cider vinegar. I like to remove the crackling and shred the meat up into the veg.

  6. Transfer the pork and veg to a platter with the crackling broken up on top, and serve alongside the fennel, apple and watercress salad. If you want, you can add a pile of buttered soft rolls to the table so people can make their own hog roast baps.

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