If you are Kosher (or Dale as it turns out) This is Not the Meal for You…Roast Pork with Fennel Onion and Milk

Hope I haven't offended but it's true...meanwhile for the rest of us pork lovers it is an wonderful idea.
Very non Kosher…not only pork but cooked with milk on a bed of fennel and onions.

I bought a beautiful piece of pork loin on the bone.
I brined it for 2-3 hours (by the way that doesn’t make for good crackling.)

It made lovely juicy pork meat but the crackling needed at least another 20 minutes in a hot oven to crisp up.

I watched Mario Batalli cook pork on a bed of fennel and onions and milk on Iron Chef
The recipes are not available but I had pork fennel onions and milk...So let’s go for it.

Slice the fennel vertically and slice a peeled onion.
Place into your roasting dish drizzle olive oil & some sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.
Scatter some sage leaves and rosemary leaves.
Cover the vege with milk
Remove the pork from the brine drain, and dry with a paper towel.

Season the meat well and rub with olive oil.
Rub the scored skin with plenty of sea salt.

Into 200c oven

20 minutes then turn oven down to 190C

and cook another 15 minutes per 500 gms of joint.

Test for doneness with skewer. If juices run clear you are done.
Cut meat off the bone, remove the skin…pop this back into the oven to crisp up for crackling

Cover with foil and rest.

Meanwhile remove the vege and puree with a hand blenderNow just to accompany this brilliant piece of pork you need to make this apple chutney.

A recipe from Ming Tsai. "Simply Ming"
It is sufficiently acid and sweet to really complement the pork.

Apple and Ginger Chutney
2 cups finely diced peeled and cored Braeburn or Fugi Apples
Sprinkle lemon juice over them to stop them turning brown.

1 tablespoon vegetable oil (I use rice bran)
1 med onion finely chopped
1 tablespoons ginger finely minced
Sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 cup apple cider
1 cup rice wine vinegar

I didn’t have any cider so I used white wine

Saute onion and ginger in oil
Add apples cook about 30 seconds
Add cider and vinegar
Taste for seasoning add salt and freshly ground black pepper
Bring to simmer and reduce till thick

Refrigerate in a covered jar should last at least 10 days.I roasted some potatoes in duck fat and cooked some peas with some fresh mint.

So to serve

A bed of pureed vege,

Slices of beautiful juicy pork
Peas and potatoes roasted on duck fat
All topped off with a dob of the Apple and Ginger Chutney

The pork was so juicy…
I loved it, Dale was not that impressed but he loved the vege and the chutney.

Plenty for sandwiches the next day.