Roast Pork with Whiskey Gravy, Herbed Smashed Potatoes, Halloumi & Prosciutto Stuffing Cups.

Roast Pork with Whiskey Gravy GF

Prep time 30 minutes

Cooking time 1 hr 10 minutes

Serves up to 10 

2kg rolled pork loin

1 onion roughly sliced

6 dried peach halves

4 apples, skin on cut in half 

2 Tbsp olive oil

3 Tbsp sea salt 

Cracked pepper

Bay leaves, thyme leaves to garnish 

1. Preheat oven to 230 °C or 210 °C  fan forced.( This is hot , but we want to get the oven really hot so the skin pops and forms the perfect crackle.) Line a deep ceramic baking dish with baking paper big enough  to hold the pork,  place onions, peaches and apples down the centre of the dish. Place pork on top, score skin if butcher hasn’t done this already with a small sharp knife in 1 cm intervals. Rub pork skin with the olive oil, and sprinkle with sea salt and a couple of grinds of cracked pepper.

2.Cook pork for 30 minutes, till crackle has popped all over- if not completely popped all over, continue cooking for another 5 minutes or so. Reduce oven temp to 180°C or 160°fan forced, cook for 50 minutes -1 hour. Remove from oven and test if cooked by piercing through the skin with a skewer into the centre of the meat, if the skewer is hot when removed, its cooked through.

3 Drain 3 Tbsps of fat from the tray straight into a small saucepan.( This is the base for the gravy )  You can also keep any juices aside.

4 Allow the pork to rest for 20-25 minutes, covered with foil. Slice and serve with apples and peaches from the tray. Garnish with fresh herbs and serve with potatoes and stuffing cups.

 Perfect crackling checklist

 Buy the pork roll from a great butcher who is passionate about ethically sourced/ grown / raised pork. 

 Ask him to score the skin for you.

 Allow the skin to dry in the fridge for at least 1 day without any coverings/plastic. Just unwrap and leave on a tray in the fridge. If you can’t do 1 day – do as long as you have 1-2 hours will help dry the skin out. Pat dry with paper towel if you are running short on time.

To achieve the perfect crackle, you will need to invest in a beautiful pork roll. This will ensure that the skin pops and the crackle ( which lets face it is the star of the show )

 Cooking guide-

Allow 30 minutes for the crackle to pop.

Then calculate 20 minutes for each kg of pork. If your pork is 2 kg – you will need 1hr -10 minutes approx. to cook the pork.

 You can use pork belly, or Pork shoulder, weigh and calculate the minutes per kg. 

Whiskey Gravy

Prep time 15 minutes

Cooking time 8 minutes 

Serves 10

3 Tbsps  pork fat from the cooked pork

3 Tbsps plain flour

2 Tbsp your favourite whiskey ( insert the whiskey girls brand in here ) 

500ml chicken stock

2 tsp vegemite ( Yes, the breakfast spread) 

1 or 2 Rosemary stalks

Sea salt & cracked pepper

 1 Drain the 3 Tbsps fat from the cooked pork straight into a saucepan. Cook over medium high heat till bubbling, stir in the flour, whisk till smooth. Pour in the whiskey and cook for a 1 minute. Add the stock gradually and whisk till no lumps. Add vegemite, reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 3-4 minutes whisking occasionally to avoid any lumps. Pop in a sprig of rosemary for some flavour, season with sea salt and cracked pepper. Serve with the pork and potatoes.

Gravy secrets-

Use a  small whisk to bring the flour and fat together till smooth, if this is smooth, then your gravy will be smooth. 

Add the liquid/ stock gradually, stop, and whisk to allow the emulsion to come back together. If you add the liquid all at once there will be a high chance of lumps.( no one wants lumps!) 

Reduce the heat once you have the flour and stock incorporated together, add the vegemite- it will add colour and salt to the gravy. 

Stir with an herb/ rosemary sprig and serve it at the table, the flavours will continue to develop into the gravy.

Use GF flour/ or corn flour to make this Gravy GF 

Herbed smashed potatoes

Prep time 15 minutes

Cooking time 1-1 ½   hours  

Serves 10

2 kg washed chat potatoes 

¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Sea salt & cracked pepper

¼ cup chopped mixed herbs( such as parsley, thyme, rosemary)

1 Place the potatoes into a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil over high heat. Once boiling, reduce the heat to medium and cook for 12-15 minutes till quite tender. 

Drain and allow to cool for a few minutes till cool enough to handle. 

2 Preheat oven to 180°C or 160°fan forced. ( you can cook the potatoes at the same time as the pork, once the crackle has popped- on the lower rack in the oven ). Line a tray with baking paper. Add the potatoes and squash with a potato masher or fork keeping them in one piece. Drizzle over the oil, sea salt and cracked pepper . 

3 Roast for 1 –1 ¼  hours till golden and crispy. Place on the platter with the pork and stuffing cups and sprinkle with mixed herbs. 

Haloumi and prosciutto and cranberry stuffing cups  Can be GF see tip

Makes  18

Prep time 15 minutes , plus 5 minutes cooling 

Cooking time  15 minutes 

100g butter

1  onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped 

3 cups coarse fresh breadcrumbs 

 ½ cup dried cranberries 

 ¼ cup chopped mixed herbs ( I used oregano, tarragon, parsley)  

180g grated haloumi 

100g prosciutto, cut in half lengthways. 

1  Preheat oven to 180°C / 160 °C fan forced .Heat butter in a large frypan over medium high heat. Add onions, cook for 2 minutes, add garlic and cook for 1 minute till tender. Tip in breadcrumbs, cranberries and herbs. Season with cracked pepper. ( no salt at this stage as the haloumi is salty and so is the prosciutto ) Allow to cool for 5 minutes . Stir in almost all  the haloumi. Taste and see if the seasonings need adjusting

2 Grease 18x mini muffin cups. Line each mini muffin cups with a half a slice of prosciutto. Fill  each cup with the breadcrumb mixture, nice and full, sprinkle with remaining grated haloumi and bake for 15-20 minutes till golden. Serve with pork. 

 Tip-

 These can be cooked while the pork is resting, OR cooked a few hours ahead of time, refrigerate and heated up in the oven( 180°C /160 °C fan forced)  for 5-7 minutes just before serving. Depending on how much room you have in your oven. You can make these up the day before or a few hours before and cook when ready to serve. 

This recipe can be made gluten free simply by subbing out the crumbs with Gluten Free breadcrumbs. Grab some day old GF bread, and place it into a food processor, pulse till fine crumbs form.  The leftover breadcrumbs can be frozen in freezer bags or sealed containers till ready to use. Fresh breadcrumbs are a must for this recipe, regular or GF.