I went home for a couple of days, for the primary need to get more clothes as I’d only initially gone to London with 2 weeks worth. However, as soon as I opened our larder door, my excitement for cooking returned and I asked my mum if I could cook dinner that evening. Every mother’s dream, surely?! I was met with one (or two) stipulations: that I had to use the pork shoulder and lentils. So, I like all food (within reason) but that doesn’t mean I necessarily want to eat certain things. Pork and lentils generally fall into that category. Ah well, it was an opportunity to go all Nigella for the evening I suppose.
So, my ingredients for the evening were:
- Shoulder of pork
- Olive oil
- A lot of salt!
- 4 cloves of garlic (or however much garlic you like)
- 2 x Bouquet garni
- 1 bottle or can of beer/stout
- 2 x 1tsp thyme
- 2 x 1tsp sage
- 1tsp fennel seeds
- 3 carrots – roughly chopped
- Butternut squash – roughly chopped
- 3 red onions – roughly chopped
- 500g green lentils
- A pack of chipolata sausages (optional)
- Mangetoute or Sugar snap peas (to serve)
Such beautiful colours!
Roasts or cooking large hunks of meat are probably among my favourite things to cook as they require so little effort. You essentially get a large enough cooking tray, pile on all your well-seasoned and herbed chopped vegetables (use half the butternut squash) and place the meat (in this case, with a lot of salt pushed into its fatty casing) on top of the beautifully colourful veggie nest, drizzle on some oil and pop into the oven.
With the majority of roasts, it’s recommended to put the meat into the oven at a high 200C+ setting for 20 – 30 minutes, depending on the size of the joint but with pork, this is crucial. In order to get the salty, crispy yummy crackling, the fat really has to sizzle under the heat so leave the shoulder in for 30 minutes in this case. After 30 minutes, take the pork out and turn down the oven to 160C and pour over the beer.
Leave the shoulder in the oven for a further 90 minutes, but do keep checking on it to spoon beer onto the meat, to ensure a moist, succulent meat. 30 minutes before serving, prepare the lentils. 20 minutes before serving, take the pork out and leave the meat to rest, absorbing all the gorgeous herby beer liquid.
For the lentils:
Boil a kettle with enough water so when you cover the lentils you have about half an inch of water covering the top of them. Add the other half of butternut squash, a bouquet garni, thyme and sage to the mixture. Give a quick stir and leave, with the lid on, to simmer for 20 – 25 minutes.
Take the lentils off the heat 10 minutes before serving, to allow any extra water to absorb. Grill the sausages and steam the greens and slice up the pork.
Plate up how you desire, and enjoy! Preferably with a beer. I wouldn’t recommend wine for this one!
