Roast pork with fennel

Serves:

Ingredients

• 1.8 kg pork shoulder roast
• 15-20 basil leaves
• 2 bay leaves
• Pepper
• 1 fennel bulb, green tops cut off, cut in half, core removed and sliced
• 1 lemon, sliced thickly
• 5 cloves garlic, skin on
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon salt

Method

Preheat oven to 220°C

Take pork out of packaging, remove netting and wash with cold water then pat dry with paper towel.

Lie the pork skin side down, spread the meat out and give a good grind of black pepper to the inside meat.

Add basil and bay leaves to the centre then roll the pork back up with skin facing upward.

Leave for 30 minutes.

Place sliced fennel, lemon slices, garlic into a baking tray and toss to combine.

Place pork on top of fennel, pour over oil and sprinkle salt onto the skin.

With your hands, rub salt into the skin – this will help you get good crackling.

Place in the oven for 20 minutes then decrease the heat to 180°C and cook for a further 1 hour and ten minutes.

Remove from the oven, cover with foil and rest for 15 minutes before slicing.

Notes

• I cooked this in our Weber which added another layer of fabulous flavour to the pork.
• The fennel slowly caramelizes with the pork juices (and fat) and is to die for!
• If you prefer to remove the skin from the pork, just leave a little fat on the meat so it doesn’t dry out while cooking.
• I served this with Weber-roasted sweet potatoes and some steamed green beans.
• This is the simplest recipe – the hardest part was taking the pork out of its netting!
• Recipe created by Camilla Baker for Kidspot, New Zealand’s best recipe finder.

Serving Suggestions

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