A low and slow roasted pork recipe that makes the most of seasonal British produce
Jenny Jefferies shares another recipe with us.
October is a month of celebration, and a demonstration of the variety we are in danger of losing, not simply in apples, but in the richness and diversity of landscape, ecology and culture too.
Often visualised as a season for death and change in nature, John Keats, born on the 31 October 1795, expresses this so beautifully in his poem ‘To Autumn’ written in 1819, as this extract shows:
“Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss’d cottage-trees,
And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
For summer has o’er-brimm’d their clammy cells.”
The humble apple is often used as a symbol of good health, future happiness, love, knowledge, redemption and fertility. It is reliably used to convey certain messages in a variety of art, religion and language.
As you walk through the Cambridgeshire countryside, and enjoy the first bite into a fresh apple, appreciate the fleeting beauty of life and savour the moment.
Here I share with you a recipe that showcases seasonal British produce such as pork, carrots, onions, garlic and of course apples, to their upmost greatest.
Thank you to Phil Saxby, of Saxby’s Cider, for contributing this delicious ‘Low and Slow Roasted Pork’ recipe to my first book, For The Love Of The Land. It makes both the pork and apple sing!
You can get your copy of For The Love Of The Land from all good book shops.
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Low and Slow Roasted Pork
“We had a small field which I thought would be good for an orchard in order to supply this chap with apples… But I had a change of heart and decided to plant trees for cider making,” says Phil Saxby, of Saxby’s Cider.
“This recipe is a Saxby family favourite. Not only is it delicious but it can provide great leftovers for pulled pork rolls another day. A big advantage to the low and slow cooking time is you can leave it cooking all day (or overnight) while getting on with other things.”
Preparation time: 15 minutes | Cooking time: 10 hours | Serves 12 (easily)
Ingredients
4 medium carrots, each cut into 3 pieces
3 onions, peeled and quartered
2 apples, quartered
2 whole bulbs of garlic
1 bunch of fresh thyme
6kg pork shoulder on the bone, with scored skin (from your local butcher)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
500ml Saxby’s Original Cider
500ml chicken stock
Method
Preheat your oven to 220°c. Put the roughly chopped carrots, onions, apples, bulbs of garlic and thyme sprigs into a large roasting tray.
Pat the pork shoulder all over with olive oil and sit it on top of the vegetables. Now massage the salt and pepper into the skin of the pork.
Put the tray on a low shelf in your preheated oven to cook for 30 minutes or until it’s beginning to colour, then turn your oven down to 120°c and leave the pork for 9 hours or until you can pull the meat apart easily with a fork.
At this stage, tip the cider into the roasting tray and let it cook for another hour. Take the pork out of the oven and let it rest for half an hour before transferring it to a large board. Cover the meat with foil and let it rest.
Remove the vegetables and add the chicken stock to the roasting tray. Put it on the heat, and reduce until you have a lovely gravy. Strain before serving.
Serve with potatoes and green vegetables of your choice and more Saxby’s Cider. Cheers!
See Jenny’s other recipes here. Jenny Jefferies is the author of the For The Love Of The Land and For The Love Of The Sea series, and Islands In A Common Sea: Stories of Farming, Fishing and Food Around The World. A Love British Food Ambassador, Jenny is married to a farmer and lives in South Cambridgeshire.
