Roast pork and crackling with apples, lemon and thyme

Roast pork and crackling with apples, lemon and thyme

Try Gill Meyer’s one-dish recipe for succulent roast pork and crispy crackling, cooked with apples and seasoned with fennel seed, sage, lemon and thyme.

Roast pork and crackling with apples, lemon and thyme

This recipe is taken from Gill’s book Time: A Year and a Day in the Kitchen.

  • Serves icon Serves 6
  • Time icon Hands-on time 15 min, oven time 60-65 min, plus resting

Try Gill Meyer’s one-dish recipe for succulent roast pork and crispy crackling, cooked with apples and seasoned with fennel seed, sage, lemon and thyme.

This recipe is taken from Gill’s book Time: A Year and a Day in the Kitchen.

Nutrition: per serving

Calories
740kcals
Fat
42.8g (14.6g saturated)
Protein
70.1g
Carbohydrates
17.5g (16.7g sugars)
Fibre
2.3g
Salt
0.5g

Ingredients

  • 2kg British free-range boneless pork loin, rolled and skin scored (your butcher can do this for you)
  • 1 red onion, cut into 8-10 wedges
  • 8 small eating apples, such as cox
  • 2 lemons, sliced into 5mm rounds
  • Small bunch fresh sage, leaves picked
  • 8 bay leaves
  • Small bunch fresh thyme 
  • Handful fennel fronds, if available
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds, lightly bashed
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
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Method

  1. Heat the oven to 230°C/210°C fan/gas 8 or as hot as it will go. Put the pork (with its very dry skin) in a suitably sized roasting tin. 
  2. Season all over with salt, then transfer to the hot oven and roast for 25-30 minutes. Once the crackling is looking good, remove the pork and turn the oven down to 190°C/170°C fan/gas 5.
  3. Scatter the red onion wedges over the base of a large, clean ovenproof dish. Carefully lift the pork from its hot roasting tin and set it down on top of the onions.
  4. Put the whole apples around the pork, arrange the lemon slices in between them, scatter over the sage leaves, bay, thyme and fennel fronds (if using) and season well with salt and pepper. Sprinkle over the crushed fennel seeds and drizzle everything with the olive oil.
  5. Put the pork and apples in the oven and cook for 35 minutes more until the pork is cooked through and the apples are soft but not collapsing. (If the apples look too soft, you can take them out of the oven and allow the pork to finish cooking without them.) 
  6. Remove the dish from the oven and rest the meat in a warm place for 10-15 minutes. Serve everyone a few thick slices of pork, some generous strips of crackling, an apple and some lemony, herby juices.

Nutrition

Nutrition: per serving
Calories
740kcals
Fat
42.8g (14.6g saturated)
Protein
70.1g
Carbohydrates
17.5g (16.7g sugars)
Fibre
2.3g
Salt
0.5g

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