Food, travel, recipe & sights

I bought Jamie Oliver’s books and found that it is so easy to roast pork.  That guy is a genius.  He makes everything sounds so simple and in fact, making it is simple too.

Well, I did not follow his recipe as I can’t afford a whole bottle of white wine for the roast pork.  However, the idea is more or less taken from Jamie Oliver’s book Cook with Jamie.

Ingredients:

One pig’s fore leg (this is a lot leaner than the hind leg)

1 tablespoon of five spice powder

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

4 tablespoon of Chinese white wine (Shao Xiang)

1 bulb garlic

1 head of fennel (or any hardy vegetable that you enjoy eating)

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Method:

Use a sharp knife and make little cuts on the skin of the pig’s leg.  I tried using a fork but damn, the skin was too tough.  Season with the above seasonings and leave in the lower compartment of the fridge for several hours.

Heat oven to 180 deg. celcius.  Wrap the pig’s leg in a piece of aluminium foil, leaving some gaps for the steam to pass through.  Bake for 1 hour.

After that, cut the fennel vegetable and put it together with the garlic into the roast pork pan.  But, REMOVE THE FOIL.  Bake for another 1 hour at 180 deg. celcius.  If you want crispy skin, 10 minutes before the end of roasting time, heat your oven to the max.  The high heat will make the skin pops and crackles.

Of course, the quality of the roast is nothing like what we buy from the stalls.  But nevertheless, the meat is tender and flavourful.   The juice of the roast gets into the vegetables.

Different ovens give different kind of heat.  So, do check regularly that the temperature is right and the skin is not burnt.