Roast Pork with Crackling and Green Gooseberry Sauce
Take us with you this summer.
Ingredients
For the pork:
2.25kg loin of organic free-range pork with the skin rind intact
coarse salt or Maldon sea salt
2 tbsp chopped herbs (parsley, thyme, chives, marjoram, savoury, perhaps very little sage or rosemary)
salt and freshly ground pepper
For the sauce:
275g fresh green gooseberries
stock syrup to cover - 110ml water, 75g sugar – 175ml approximately
a knob of butter (optional)
Method
For the pork:
Preheat the oven to 190°C/Gas Mark 5.
Score the skin at 5mm intervals running with the grain – let your butcher do this if possible because the skin, particularly of free-range pork, can be quite tough. This is to give you really good crackling and make it easier to carve later.
Dry brine the pork.
Put the pork skin-side down on a chopping board, season well with crunchy sea salt and black pepper and sprinkle with freshly chopped herbs. Allow to dry brine for several hours or overnight.
Dab off with kitchen paper.
Roll the joint tightly and secure with a slipknot, then repeat at the other end of the loin.
Work your way towards the centre, tying the joint at about 4cm intervals.
Sprinkle some salt over the rind and roast the joint on a wire rack in a roasting tin. Allow 25-28 minutes per 450g. Baste here and there with the rendered pork fat.
While the meat is in the oven, follow the recipe to make the gooseberry sauce.
Just before the end of the cooking time, remove the pork to another roasting tin. Increase the oven temperature to 230°C/Gas Mark 8 and return the joint to the oven to further crisp the crackling. When the joint is cooked the juices should run clear.
Put the pork onto a hot carving dish and leave it to rest for 10-15 minutes in a low oven before carving. Serve two slices of pork per person with some gooseberry sauce and garnish with rocket. Rustic roast potatoes and a seasonal green salad would also be great.
For the sauce:
Dissolve the sugar in the water and boil together for 2 minutes. Store in a covered jar in the refrigerator until needed.
Top and tail the gooseberries, put into a stainless steel saucepan, barely cover with stock syrup, bring to the boil and simmer until the fruit bursts. Taste. Stir in a small knob of butter if you like but it is very good without it.