A Sunday roast

Nothing shouts out more that it’s Sunday but a Sunday roast! Choose your cut, prep your vegetables, pick a side and let the guests bring on the pudding. I made a paprika and lemon slow roast pork with balsamic roasted fennel.

Head straight to the recipe.

When it comes to Sunday roasts, I admit the Brits have mastered it. There is nothing more comforting on a lazy Sunday than a roast of beef, very thinly sliced accompanied by baked root vegetables, perhaps some cauliflower cheese. Not to mention a healthy amount of warm Yorkshire puddings, keep a mountain aside just for me.  But there are plenty of recipes around for a traditional British roast, don’t you think?

What I love on Sunday roasts is their simplicity and ease of prepping. You do put in quite a bit of work, don’t get me wrong but considering you can prepare a feast for ten on a humble joint, it is certainly worth it. I chose a bone-in, skin on pork shoulder and marinated it with smoked paprika and lemon, both zest and juice, thyme and garlic. It came out exactly as I dreamed it to be, succulent, zesty and with a hint of smoke.

If you like crackling, make sure your rub the skin with a bit of extra coarse salt. The key to crispy skin is of course the temperature. Once you have slowly cooked the pork for a good couple of hours, remove its cover, be it lid or foil and subject it to the highest temperature your oven can bring on.

The thick layer of skin in the pork needs quite a bit of time for cooking. On the last part of cooking it, I tried it on 180 C for a bit longer, namely one hour and it worked out well. The layer of fat had melted and the skin did crisp on without burning. This however is something that might depend on how your oven works and no one knows it better than you.

So, tip to keep: let the pork cook nice and slow and bring up the heat to crisp towards the end. If you uncover it and it seems like the skin is crisping too quickly, cover again with foil and remove it on the last 20 minutes.

As for the fennel, it is a divine and very refreshing side. It makes a wonderful warm salad on its own. Combined with the pork, it is mouth watering!

Print Recipe

Bone in pork shoulder with paprika and lemon and balsamic roasted fennel

Servings: 6

Ingredients

• 1 Pork shoulder bone in & skin on 3-4 kg
• 10-12 sprigs of thyme
• 1 head of garlic (10-12 garlic cloves)
• 1 tspn dried chilli flakes
• 2 tbspn smoked paprika
• 1 tspn mustard powder
• 3 lemons zest and juice
• 2 tbspn coarse sea salt
• 100 ml olive oil
• 3-4 onions halved
• 3-4 potatoes peeled and halved.
• Fennel with balsamic vinegar
• 4-5 heads of fennel halved or quartered
• 2 tbs balsamic vinegar
• A pinch of sea salt
• ½ tsp of thyme

Instructions

• The day before, prepare the pork with the marinade. Using a food processor, mix together the garlic, paprika, olive oil, lemon juice and lemon rind with 1 tbsp salt. Pat dry the pork with kitchen paper. If you haven’t scored the skin of the pork, use a sharp knife and make incisions deep enough to cut through the skin but not in the flesh. Rub pork with the marinade and refrigerate for 8-12 hrs (Marinating prior to cooking can be done up to 24 hrs before).
• Preheat the oven to 160C. Grab your largest roasting tin and place the halved potatoes. Sit the pork shoulder on top. Pour over the marinade with approximately 1 large glass of water cover (using a lid or foil) and cook for 2:30 hrs.
• To crisp the skin, increase the temperature to 180 C and remove the foil. Keep it in the oven for one more hour.
• Meanwhile prepare the fennel in a baking tray with a bit of olive oil and a healthy drizzle of balsamic vinegar and coarse sea salt. Add the fennel tray in the oven once you remove the pork.
• Once the pork is ready, remove it from the oven and leave to rest for 30 mins. This is the cooking time you will need for your roast fennel.
• To serve, lift off the crisp skin off the pork, and slice adding a couple of fennel wedges as a side.Lightly dust your working surface and proceed with opening the dough in circular manner. To achieve a circular shape, turn the dough around and roll it out from different sides as if following the quarters of a clock. Remember to dust with just a bit of flour often so that it doesn’t stick to your surface. Make your filo as thin as you can.

I hope you will enjoy it in really good company on a very lazy Sunday.

from London with love,

Eugenia

by