Braised/roasted pork shoulder in stout, served with chestnut, cranberry, sage and onion stuffing.
Simple to prepare and delicious to eat.
This recipe combines braising and roasting to get the best from a pork shoulder joint.
Shoulder and belly pork are the cheaper cuts of meat because of the higher fat content, this recipe renders that fat creating flavour. The fat is drained off after cooking and you are left with succulent and delicious meat.
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Served with a flavour packed chestnut, cranberry, sage and onion stuffing - a simple tweak to your packet of stuffing to create a scrummy wow factor.
Let's start with the meat, my pork shoulder joint was around 4lb in weight.
Firstly preheat the oven to 140 degrees (fan oven)
For the first part of the cooking we will braise the joint - cook it in liquid and steam. For this you need a pan with a lid - or a roasting tray covered with foil.
​Place onion, garlic and brown sugar in the pan. I used one small onion, a clove of garlic and a couple of desert spoons of brown sugar.
Now add 250ml of a good quality stout
Add the pork shoulder to the pan and give it a good sprinking of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
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Cover and place in the oven for two hours.
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Whilst waiting prepare the stuffing - see below.
After two hours remove from the oven. Most of the fat will have been released and together with the stout formed a fabulous liquid to make your gravy with.
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Drain off this liquid - you are going to use it later.....
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Turn the oven up to 160 degrees and place the meat back in the oven - without a cover.
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This means that the crackling will form and the meat roasts.
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This will take about two hours.
With the cooking fluid cooled drain off all the fat and use this to make the most amazing gravy.
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If you are not used to making gravy you can use pork or onion gravy granules and use this liquid to supercharge the flavour.
After the two hours is up at 160 degrees remove the joint from the oven - cover with tin foil and allow it to rest.
No hurry with resting the meat it will stay hot for hours.
Now for the stuffing. This is seriously easy to make and tastes incredible.
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Homemade stuffing is great and allows you to control all your flavours and textures. BUT - this tastes amazing, looks incredible and is really simple.
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It was cooked alongside the roast potatoes at around 200 degrees (fan) for about 35 minutes. Taken out the oven when the top was golden and crispy.
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This recipe starts with a packet of sage and onion stuffing - whichever brand you prefer.
Chop up chestnuts and dried cranberries, I used a good handfull of each to add to a half packet of stuffing mix.
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Mix it all together with water (see the packet instuctions for your brand). I added some fresh sage for a bit more flavour.
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Once it is mixed you can create stuffing balls or place it in a dish for baking.
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About 35 minutes at 200 degrees (fan) until golden brown.
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Once you tweak your stuffing this way you will be trying all sorts of alternatives.