This is too easy, and especially perfect for a lunch as all the slow cooking is done while you sleep. You can wake up in the morning with all the hard work done, and this beautiful tender pork is ready for resting and slicing. Either serve this with some mustard, bread and salad as the Gourmet Traveller magazine suggests where I found this recipe, or with a gratin (baked in a cheese sauce) of your favourite vegetable – we chose cauliflower. Add any green you like from salad, broccoli or peas. And if you are a crackling fan, slice the skin off and place on a rack in a hot oven to crisp up nicely, keeping an eye on it until it bubbles and turns golden.
Pictured: Overnight pork roast with fennel and green olives1 piece of pork shoulder, preferably oyster cut (which you can find in Harris Farm Curious Cuts) , approximately 1.9kg, skin on and scored.
4 small fennel bulbs, thickly sliced
1 onion, cut into wedges
180g large green olives, pitted and halved
250ml dry apple cider
2 tsp crushed fennel seeds
2 tbsp olive oil
Preheat oven to 100 °C.
Place pork in a roasting pan, scatter fennel, onion and olives around, pour in the cider. Sprinkle with the fennel seeds, drizzle with the oil and season well with salt and pepper.
Roast overnight for around 8 – 9 hours. In the last hour of cooking turn the fennel around a little- make sure the pork can be pulled apart easily and is super tender, you can keep roasting until this happens, basting a little too to mingle the flavours well.
Serve hot. If not serving straight away you can reheat it gently at time of serving, bringing it back up to hot in the oven. I also transported it easily where I separated the liquid into a jar, kept the pork and trimmings in its pan, then added back the liquid and reheated it in the oven where I was serving it – a very flexible dish!
Serves 6