Pulling my leg????? (well, shoulder actually!)

At the request of Jacob, last night's dinner was a simple pulled pork dish.  Super-easy to make.  Super-delicious!!!  Always a favourite, taking minimum effort, this is a comforting dish that can be easily jazzed up to more than satisfy those dinner guests.  Again, experiment with flavourings and do it YOUR way - there is no right or wrong here.  Oooh, except for the cut of pork.  Please use shoulder - the fat throughout the meat will melt deliciously into the joint and give it moisture and unbelievable flavour.  Leg or loin will not produce the same mouth-watering delectibility. 

Simple Method:

1 Shoulder of Pork - size doesn't matter, unless REALLY small, I always cook for more or less the same amount of time - remember, you can always turn the oven down.

A medley of flavour producing veg:  carrots, onions, fennel is stunning in this!!  A whole head of garlic, parnsips even.  Just a couple of each, chopped roughly into large pieces.  Leave the garlic whole - you don't even need to peel it. 

Your favourite herbs:  Sage is great.  Rosemary works just as well and holds up satisfyingly in the cooking process.  Fresh if possible, whatever is in your garden pots.  Dry will work too.

Set your oven to at least 200 degrees centigrade.

1. Now, I could bleat on about buying the most organic piece of pork you can find in your budget.  However, the real beauty of this meal is that you can just grab a joint from the fridge and go.  As long as pork is British, I wouldn't be sniffy about it.  It is a cost-effective, great family meal - you can visit the most expensive butcher in town when trying to impress guests if you like!!!
2. If your pork is packaged in plastic, try to remove it the night before you need it and put the pork back into the fridge to dry out.  However, this isn't overly necessary and let's face it - our busy lives get in the way of remembering such things!!  I can sometimes just decide to do this dish at the last minute and it still produces amazing crackling.  Just make sure you dry it off with some kitchen roll first before you cook it.  Make sure there are some decent slits in the rind, if not just create a couple more (stanley knife is perfect for this!).  Then sprinkle the rind with a generous amount of salt.  Again, common or garden table salt will do!
3. Place the meat in a roasting dish - doesn't matter if metal, glass, ceramic - whatever will hold the joint comfortably without being over-large so that too much air circulates and it dries out.  But not too small that the rind will be drowning in the juices as it cooks.  Put the pork in the oven for about an hour at the high temperature. 
4. After about an hour or so you should be able to see the crackling start to form - it will be a little bubbly but obviously not over-crunchy at this point.  Now, take the pork out of the oven and turn the temperature down to around 140 degrees centigrate.  Carefully cover the dish with about three layers of tin foil and put back into the cooler oven.  Now, go and enjoy yourself!!  This dish will sit comfortably for four hours - if it looks as if is is running away with itself, just reduce the temperature to 130.  It is going to sit there for ages, so it WILL cook.  I usually cook the joint for around 6/8hrs in total, depending on the size.
5. About 2hrs before you will be ready to serve, put the vegetables and herbs in the bottom of the dish and sit the pork on top.  Return to the oven for an hour.  You can drizzle the pork juices over the joint at this point too.
6. 1hr before you're ready to serve, remove the foil, whack the oven up to around 180/190 degrees and let the crackling crunch.
7. The pork underneath and edges will be caramelising with the veg - give the veg a good stir around.  I don't ever put the veg in this dish intending to serve it.  Rather just let it gently permeate the flesh and flavour it.  You can mash the veg at the end and make a gravy out of it - delicious; but remember to drain the fat out of the pan if you do this - fatty gravy, not nice!
8. When the crackling is crunchy, remove pork from the oven.  Remove the crackling carefully and put to one side.  Cover the pork with tin foil for about 1/2hr if possible to let it rest.  Then with a knife and fork, shred the meat and serve!!!  Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmn!!!

Tip:  Crackling.  Don't stress if your crackling doesn't crackle!!  Once you've removed it from the joint, you can pop it back into the oven to crisp up.  There are so many 'methods' I've heard about for crisping your crackling - however I never end up with soggy offerings!!  Don't stress about it, it will crunch up one way or another!

SERVING:  Now, this dish can be served with gorgeous roasties, braised red cabbage, roasted veg, gravy etc.  Or just simply, as we had it last night, with toasted pitta bread and coleslaw!!  Delicious!!!!

This was a smaller joint than normal.  The bottom has caramelised beautifully!  My fave bits!

Pulled Pork, beautifully succulent! The garlic, fennel & carrots are my hubbies fave bits to nibble on before the main deal!