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Monday, March 21, 2011

Anna's Pork Roast

I have actually cooked this recipe of Anna Gare's for pork roast many times - it is absolutely delicious and results in crispy crackling every time. I was inspired to cook pork roast as we bought some fennel and the lovely lady we bought it from said it could be roasted. I did a little bit of searching and found Not Quite Nigella had a pork roast with fennel. Normally when I have cooked Anna's I have gone all out and cooked all the suggested accompaniments - potatoes and balsamic pears with prosciutto, buttery spinach and beans....but this time it is roasted potatoes, apples and fennel.


We bought a lovely piece of rolled free range pork from our excellent local butcher. As part of Anna's recipe you blanch the skin in boiling water very briefly and then rub onto the flesh a paste of fennel seeds, garlic, rosemary and salt that you smash together with a mortar and pestle. The pork is then placed upon a vege bed (carrot, onion and celery) to roast. The final 30 minutes of cooking time you crank up the heat in the oven to make sure your skin crackles perfectly.


I roasted my apple, potatoes and fennel separately. The funny thing is I completely overcooked and hence dried out my fennel making it basically inedible - the whole reason I was inspired to cook the pork roast!!
It didn't matter, the whole thing was delicious, once again. I especially liked the roasted apples. If you have never managed to master the crackling on a pork roast I recommend you try this recipe - just make sure you buy good quality pork.

12 comments:

  1. oh my - look at that crackling!!! Superb!

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  2. That looks really delicious. I'll bet it could be smelled a mile away. About the potatoes au gratin dish - yes, I have tried using less fat milk and it just doesn't seem to come out as tasty.

    I wonder if you soak the fennel before hand if it wouldn't burn. I know I had to soak my rosemary for 1 hour before wrapping it around my lamb and putting it on the grill. I have no idea if that works for fennel.

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  3. Got to love a roast pork with crackling!!! I am getting my oven cleaned this week so I dare not make one for a while LOL!

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  4. Looks good! Apples, potatoes and fennel, perfect array to go with this dish! YUMS~

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  5. Love a good pork roast...this looks great! :)

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  6. Aww thankyou so much! I'm so glad that you liked it and it looks absolutely magnificent! I can imagine a hush fell over the lucky diners present when it was brought to the table :D

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  7. One word. Yum.

    Oh and I'm drooling.

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  8. muppy, that crackling looks amazing. good work!

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  9. Well done! That crackling looks like a heart attack waiting to happen... Which is how it should be! :P

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  10. You are a recipient of "The Lovely Blog Award". I adore your blog and appreciate all the hard work and love you put into your recipes! To see the award please visit http://oureyeseatfirst.blogspot.com/2011/03/homemade-series-3-grapefruit-marmalade.html and then pass it along to 15 other deserving bloggers! Congratulations!

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  11. The pork looks absolutely perfect!

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