Pork Roast. Done Right. With Crackling.

My friend won a pork roast.  With crackling. mmmmm.  I was assigned to cook it.  I slow cooked it for nine hours. mmmm.  It melted.  Literally...into a puddle of fat.  I had six people arriving for dinner and a pot of boiling fat.  We defrosted the lamb rack in time.  In a twist of fate on the other side of the world one of my oldest friends at Love, Laugh, Eat had made her own highly successful succulent pork roast.  (Pictured above)  I’ll be sharing her recipe today. 

Flavors inspired by Jamie Oliver’s suckling pig.

Rub
1 orange, 1 lemon, 2 Bay leaves, 2T fennel seeds,
3 T salt, 2 t cinnamon, 3 sprigs of rosemary, 1 whole nutmeg.

Take 2 large strips of lemon and orange zest, the bay leaves, fennel, and rosemary and grind in a mortar and pestle with a T of salt.  When broken down add the cinnamon, 2 T of salt and grate in 1/2 of the nutmeg. Stir to mix.

Roast
8pd Pork roast, 1 onion,  2 celery stalks,  2 carrots, 3 T marmalade 2 T flour Half a bottle of red wine, 2 cups of chicken stock

Score the skin of the Pork. Rub salt into the skin and then rub the Rub all over the skin and meat. (You can do this up to 1 day prior and leave in fridge.)
Pre-heat oven to 450 degrees. Pop roast in the oven. Turn the heat down to 325 and cook for 4 hours. With an hour and a 1/2 to go toss in chopped onion, carrot and celery. In the last 10 minutes glaze the roast with the marmalade.
When the roast is done let it rest.  Heat the pan juices and vegetables on the stove top (spoon off excess fat), add flour and cook for few minutes while stirring. Mash the veggies then add the wine and simmer. Sieve the gravy before serving.