ahhh Sunday… truly a day of rest… a day of lazy lounging, no-braining, thinking about nothing but perhaps what may be the next thing into your belly… and that next thing should not mean you rushing around like a loony preparing meat, chopping veg… steam and your temper rising from the oven… no, Sunday should be slow and languid and very, very tasty.
one of the fabulous things that came with the recent Sainsbury’s delivery was a shoulder of pork…it wasn’t the best or prettiest cut of meat in the world but I don’t want to sound ungrateful… i’m not a huge fan of pork like this but I do love pork belly and any kind of crackling so I’ve mixed up this traditional Sunday roast with a few spices to add a bit of zing… the original recipe called for cider but I had a jar of freshly squeezed apple juice made from the lovely Gunby apple hoard, so i’ve used this instead…
Spicy Roast Pork with Gunby Apple Juice Gravy
other than making the spicy rub there’s very little to do here but turn on the oven…
for the spice rub
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp dry chilli flakes
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 tsp cardamom pods
3 tsp salt
3 cloves garlic
zest and juice of one lemon
for the pork
1 shoulder of pork (mine was just under 1kg) with skin scored
1 large carrot – cut into thick batons
1 large red onion – cut into wedges
2 apples
1 large glass of apple juice
– crush the dry ingredients for the spice rub with a pestle and mortar, then add the garlic and lemon and crush again into a paste
– place the veg into an oven dish and lay the pork on top, rub the spice paste onto the pork, sprinkle the whole lot liberally with olive oil.
– place into a hot oven (220c) for 30minutes, then turn down the heat to 140 for a further 2 hours, basting every half hour
– after 2 hours cut up the apples into wedges and throw them into the dish along with the apple juice and roast for a further hour (you could also throw in some small, un-peeled new potatoes at this stage too)
– after this last hour take the roast out of the oven and remove the pork and carrots and let the pork rest while you make the gravy
– for the gravy simply whizz the juices, onions and apples with a hand-held blender to create a thick apple gravy
I served it all with some of these heavenly roast new potatoes…
simply divine… eat and of course, enjoy!
Well I can't vouch for the pork being a veggie and all, but the potatoes were great.
I, too prefer pork belly but I like slow roasted pork shoulder. The spicy roast pork looks fab Dom, and those potatoes look perfect!
The roast looks divine!! The brown color, apple and onion gravy, OMG I'm in love!! Then I saw your potatoes and I know I'm in love 🙂 Everything looks amazing, perfect for a lazy Sunday 🙂
Apple juice with pork . . . never tased but spunds good!! Your potatore are so delicious!! LOL
Oh my goodness that pork looks good!
I'm sitting reading this, absolutely starving after a long flight and train journey, the cupboards bare, and salivating over the pictures, making 'nom.nom.nom' style noises over your descriptions Dom, much to the embarrassment of A, sitting right next to me!….. I've just shown him the photos-he understand me now!
My goodness! I can practically smell the goodness across the pond! Can I please come to your house and be the Cinderella that cleans your pots and pans and eats the leftovers?!?
Looks fabulous! I'll bet your home smelled fantastic on this lazy Sunday afternoon! Have a wonderful week!
that looks and sounds delicious Dom. I'm a bit lazy when it comes to following recipes but yours looks so easy I'll surely give it a go. Sadly it won't be a Sunday roast for me as I work Sundays. Monday roast? hey why not. :0)
PS: I really like shoulder of pork. It has a sweeter taste than leg or loin.
I'm with you too on not being wild about pork shoulder, (it's a bit bland) but the fennel seeds make a massive difference and beef up the flavour (so to speak!) Love it with star anise too. Gorgeous. Very enticing!
This looks heavenly.
droooool
Oh, Dom..that looks wonderful! And those roasted potatoes to go along side it… YUM!! The perfect Sunday meal for sure!
Very little to do but turn on the oven – I really like the sound of that. I love pork – very underrated meat, I think.
Mmmm that looks delicious, I love little roasties with their jackets on too.
how gorgeous is this? im sure they taste just divine:)
I am drooling over that first photo.. YUM 🙂
What could be more heavenly than roast pork with apples… I don't know why I don't cook it more often. I leave roasting potatoes to my husband as he's better at it than me!