Slow Cooked Pork with Thyme & Garlic

Slow Cooked Pork with Thyme & Garlic.

A lovely relaxing weekend in an autumnal London. Today was great weather - clear blue skies (well in the morning anyway) the sun shone (again only really in the morning) & leaves were falling. I tried to convince the Houseboy to try a leaf version of a snow angel while on an afternoon walk, but understandably Australia's rugby loss earlier in the day did not leave him in the most buoyant of moods. A trip to Byron the hamburger restaurant soon had him feeling more perky. I have to say that i prefer Byrons to GBK. Although there are less burger choices, i think the burgers are cooked better & i LOVE how they decorate their restaurants. I would happily live in the Putney branch. Saturday was spent with the Ware's & their adorable baby twins -  Jack & Eliza. I decided to do Slow Cooked Pork as it requires little effort & all that needed done was some last minute veggies so we could concentrate on cuddling the babies & drinking Verve Clique (not normally how we roll in our household but it's left me wondering why on earth not?!) It was a lovely relaxing afternoon & perfectly set us up for an evening of clubbing (wow i feel old using that word - but we were in a club) to celebrate Miss Mcgrath's birthday. It's not often i drink vodka - i really only do gin when it comes to spirits but it was Bison Grass Vodka & was very good. Such a fun night & i felt super smug that i had a pair of flip flops in my bag for the walk home.

Slow cooked meat has to be one of the biggest pleasures in life, & the simplest. A great way to cook without fussing. Lamb & Beef also work incredibly well, you can experiment with different vegetables, herbs & spices & create something totally differently every time.

Ingredients:

This feeds 4 with some leftovers. 

• 2 kilo (approx) boneless rolled shoulder of pork
• 3 large cooking apples
• 10 rashers of pancetta
• 8 shallots 
• 1 glass of white wine
• 5 cloves of garlic
• 1 bunch of fresh thyme
• s&p

Method:

The first part of this this recipe is to marinade the pork - ideally overnight. If you can't then try to give it at least a couple of hours. Turn your oven onto the highest setting & give it time to get really hot. Start by crushing the garlic & finely chopping the thyme, including the stalks.  Mix together with a slug of olive oil & some black pepper. Take the mixture & cover the pork making sure you really work it into the meat. Wrap in clingfilm & leave to marinade in the fridge.

For the next part, peel, core & slice the apples. If you are not popping it all in the oven straight away toss the apples in some lemon juice to stop them turning them brown. Skin of the shallots & cut in half. Take a roasting pan (with sides) & lay the rashers of pancetta on the bottom, toss in the apples, shallots & wine, add a good pinch of s&p & finally place the pork on the top. Pop the pork in the oven & cook on high for 20 minutes, then knock the heat right back down to about 125C-140C. Then leave to gently cook away, i cooked mine for 5 hours, but you could cook it for longer. Check occasionally to make sure its not drying out. After it's been in for about 1 - 1 & 1/2 hours remove the apples, shallots (which should be soft caramalised) & any liquid, place in a pan make an easy apple sauce by simply seasoning & heating up just before you serve.

It's only fair to warn you that this cooking method doesn't produce the best cracking, but it's not really the aim for this dish. The skin & fat is there to cook the meat nice & moist. You could if you like, take the skin off once the meat is ready & pop it back in the oven on a high heat to crisp up. 

If there is meat left over then it's perfect to use for a Sunday night supper. I cooked up the pork with new potatoes, carrots, asparagus, onions & garlic. A great one pot wonder which requires little effort. Leaves you more time to watch pointless Sunday films, although this weeks choice of Footloose was FAR from pointless.

Sunday Night Supper