Roast Leg of Pork

Who doesn't enjoy a good and tantalising roast recipe?

Treat yourself and your family with this juicy and flavourful pork dish.

INGREDIENTS

ROAST LEG OF PORK

  • 2-2.5kg Leg of pork, with skin on
  • 3 Tbsp (45ml) Fine Salt
  • Sunflower oil
  • 1 large onion, sliced
  • 1 -2 bay leaves
  • 2 cloves garlic, peeled

APPLE COMPOTE

  • 4 Granny Smith Apples, peeled, cored and chopped
  • ½ cup Water
  • ½ Lemon, juice and zest
  • ¼ cup Brown Sugar
  • 1 Cinnamon stick
  • 2 Star Anise

METHOD

ROAST LEG OF PORK

Place the leg of pork in a tray, skin-side up and uncovered. Allow to dry completely in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour, or overnight if time allows.

Remove the pork from the refrigerator for 1 - 2 hours before roasting to allow it to cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 240°C.

Massage all the salt into the leg of pork with your fingers, making sure to get salt into the score lines on the skin and onto the meat too.

Place the onion, bay leaves and garlic cloves in the bottom of a roasting tray.

Transfer pork to the same roasting tray and position it on top of the onion slices.

Roast the pork at 240°C for 50 minutes, or until the skin starts to bubble and crackle. Reduce the temperature to 180°C and continue roasting for 1 - 1 ½ hours, depending on how well done you like your roast. Be careful to not overcook the pork, as it is not necessary.

If the skin has not yet crackled completely, do the following:

At the end of the cooking time, increase the oven temperature to 230°C. Roast the pork for 10 more minutes until the skin is completely golden brown and bubbly.

To calculate how long to roast the leg of pork in total: estimate 30 - 35 minutes per 500g of pork, or 1 hour and 10 minutes for every kilogram. Be sure to not roast it for longer, as you risk drying out the pork roast unnecessarily. SA Pork is totally safe to be served slightly pink in the centre.   

Remove the leg from the oven and allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving into thin slices.

Use the pan juices to make a rich, meaty gravy. When carving into thin slices, cut against the grain of the meat.

Serve the roast leg with meat gravy, Hasselback potatoes, cinnamon apple compote, roasted beetroots and baby carrots.

APPLE COMPOTE

In a saucepan, add the apples, water, lemon juice, brown sugar, cinnamon and star anise.

Simmer over a medium heat until the apples are tender and the juices are reduced to a thick syrupy consistency. This should take roughly 10 - 12 minutes.

Leave to cool and serve with the roast leg of pork.

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