Roast Pork with Crispy Crackling

A beautifully golden hatted leg of pork served with a selection of sauces. The pork itself is seasoned basically so it can be combined with any manner of flavours.

Time

• Prep Time : 15 minutes
• Cook Time : 5.5 to 6 hours
• Active Time : 30 minutes

Ingredients

1. 3 Kilograms Pork Leg (I used a deboned one which was 2.5 Kg )
2. Fine Sea Salt - about a tablespoon
3. Freshly ground black pepper - about a tablespoon and a pinch more
4. 1/3 Tablespoon of a flavourless high heat cooking oil - Vegetable, Peanut, Canola

Method

1. This is a slow cooked leg, so set some time aside for it on the day you want to eat it. The slow cooking gives you tender meat and then by using high heat to finish cooking you get the crackling.
2. The crackling depends on the moisture inside the pig evaporating to steam in a flash of high heat
3. Dry the pork thoroughly, no surface moisture.
4. Score the fat lightly, I didn’t go too deep, because I wanted this inflated type of crackling. If you score deeply, you will get crispy strips.
5. Rub all over with the salt and the pepper, especially salt the skin.
6. Set oven at 125C
7. Place the pork on the middle shelf, in a rack, with a tray underneath for the drippings.
8. Cook for about 5 hours, checking every hour, turn the leg around every couple of hours.
9. At about the 5 hour mark, pull it out and let it rest, tent it in foil.
10. You should check for doneness regulary. The safe internal temp should be abou 70C. But by checking regulary you ensure it does not dry out.
11. Note that you will cook for another 25 odd minutes to get your crackling happening.
12. An hour before you are ready to eat, crank up your oven to 250C.
13. Rub some oil over the crackling. Use an oil that can take a high temperature. I don’t recommend olive oil, but peanut, canola, vegetable, all are good.
14. Put the Leg in and let the crackling form, checking every 10 minutes. You can cover the meat with foil leaving only the crackling to prevent the meat from drying or getting charred (charred bits are good though IMHO)
15. Pull it out once you are satisfied, and let it rest for about 15 minutes before carving.

I served this with fresh Nuoc Cham, A Chimichurri, a Korean Barbeque sauce, and a Basil and Chili Sambal. We made lettuce wraps with spring onions, capsicum, green chilli peppers and more. But you could also make a pan gravy or a similar sauce to enjoy this.

Eat in good health!