When I was at Spotlight on Sunday, I came across a half price casserole dish ($17). My d.o.d (dear old dad) had bought me a casserole dish as a house warming present, but it’s a small one. It’s the perfect size for 2 person casseroles but not much good for a roast, or for entertaining.
And me being me I has to try it out straight away.
My poor boyfriend. Having to eat pork roasts all in the name of me experimenting.
The bigger problem was the J’s dad makes the best pork crackling.
I had a lot to live up to, but no pressure.
So into the casserole dish went potato, onion, cauliflower, pumpkin, and carrot.
On top of that went the pork leg, seasoned with garlic olive oil, salt, and rosemary. The pork leg was already scored, which was a bonus as I don’t have a sharp enough knife.
A casserole dish of goodness.
That went in the oven for 2 hours. About halfway through I took it out to put more salt and oil on the pork fat.
In hindsight this may have been where I went wrong. The only instruction I had about how to make crackling was lots of salt and oil. As it turns out, my interpretation of lots of salt, is too much salt. But it was still a success.
After 2 hours the pork was cooked, the crackling was crunchy, and the vegies were at that glorious stage of caramelised golden brown.
The pork roast was wrapped in tin foil to rest.
I drained all the pork juices out of the bottom, poured that into a small saucepan with some cornflour and water to make a gravy.
I probably could have done that in the casserole dish, but I wanted to keep the vegies in that to keep warm.
Next time I would cook the vegies in a separate casserole dish. All the pork juices did make them rather mushy.
But For a first try at a pork roast it was definitely delicious. J went back for seconds which is always a good sign.
Needless to say there was no crackling left.
I’m looking forward to cooking this in a camp oven.
polka-dots & sparkles 