Slow-cooked lemon and fennel pork shoulder with roast potatoes

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This slow-cooked pork shoulder recipe isn't just incredibly easy to cook – it's also a wonderful combination of flavours and textures. The crunchy crackling and soft, tender meat are lightly cured in a combination of lemon, fennel and garlic, and the beautiful roast potatoes are cooked in the same tray as the meat so they can soak up all those lovely juices.

First published in 2018

Ingredients

Metric

Imperial

Method

1
Preheat the oven to 220°C/gas mark 7
2
Place the garlic, salt, fennel and lemon zest in a pestle and mortar and grind to a coarse paste
3
Score the skin of the pork shoulder, ensuring you cut all the way through the skin to the layer of fat beneath (you can ask your butcher to do this for you)
4
Thoroughly rub the salt mix into the pork and leave for at least half an hour, or overnight if you have time
5
When ready to cook, make sure the pork is at room temperature. Place the shoulder in a large roasting tin and cook in the oven for 1 hour
6
Meanwhile, peel and quarter the potatoes. Bring a pan of salted water to the boil, add the potatoes then turn down to a simmer. Cook for around 20 minutes, or until just tender. Drain and shake the potatoes vigorously in a colander to rough up the edges. Allow to steam dry
7
Take the pork out of the oven after the first hour and add the potatoes to the tray, coating them in all the rendered fat. If there are a lot of the juices, pour them into a bowl and reserve for the sauce
8
Turn the oven down to 200°C/gas mark 6 and place the tray back in the oven for 1 and a half hours, basting every half hour and turning the tray so that it cooks evenly. If a lot of juices collect in the tray, carefully pour them out and reserve
9
Take the tray out of the oven. If the potatoes need further crisping, transfer them to another tray and return to the oven for another half an hour while the pork rests
10
While the pork is resting, transfer all the reserved juices to a pan and reduce over a high heat. Serve the pork with the potatoes and the reduced sauce

Mother of three and previously chef-owner at The Kingham Plough, Oxfordshire, Emily Watkins has a lot on her proverbial plate. But it hasn’t stopped her from becoming one of Britain’s leading chefs.

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