Fennel Roast Pork
A delicious roast pork recipe, made by rubbing a pork shoulder joint with fennel seeds, rosemary, thyme, peppercorns, salt, garlic and ouzo. Try it as an alternative to your traditional Sunday lunch.
Ingredients
Serves: 24
- 2 tablespoons fennel seeds
- 2 teaspoons dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
- 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt
- 5 tablespoons finely chopped garlic
- 2 tablespoons ouzo
- 1 (3.6kg) pork shoulder roasting joint
- 2 large onions, thickly sliced
- 1 fennel bulb, sliced thickly
- 250ml water as needed
Method
Prep:20min ›
Cook:5hr ›
Ready in:5hr20min
- Preheat oven to 170 C / Gas 3.
- Toast the fennel seeds, rosemary, thyme and peppercorns in a heavy pan over medium-low heat until strongly fragrant and the fennel seeds are lightly browned, 1 to 3 minutes. Do not let the spices burn! Place the toasted spices, sea salt, garlic and ouzo into a mortar and pestle or spice grinder and grind to a paste. Score the fat layer of the pork roast with a sharp knife; rub the spice paste all over the roast.
- Spread the sliced onions and fennel into the bottom of a large roasting tin; pour enough water into the pan to just cover the vegetables. Place the roast on top of the onions and fennel with the fat layer facing upward.
- Roast in the preheated oven until the pork is tender, 5 to 6 hours (or about 90 minutes per kg). An instant-read thermometer inserted into the centre should read 85 degrees C. Add extra water if needed during roasting to prevent the onions and fennel from burning.
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Reviews & ratings
Average global rating:
(14)
Reviews in English (14)
This is wonderful and very similar to my favorite Michael Chiarello recipe "Forever Roasted Pork". From experience I know that you can roast this at 275 F all day long which makes it even nicer if you have a busy day. I dare anyone to stop pulling crispy aromatic bits from this one. Thanks so much for sharing this yummy pull apart roast.... - 26 Jan 2015
This was wonderful, the only thing I did different was put it in the crockpot on high for 6 hours. Also just rubbed all of the spices on the roast, since I don't have a mortar & pestle. It smelled so awesome, I couldn't wait to try it. Don't skip the fennel bulb. We really enjoyed this, one of the best recipes for pork roast. - 30 Jun 2010 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)
Wow! I was quite surprised at how good the roast tasted given that it wasn't slathered in some kind of sauce. I halved the recipe as I was using a roast that weighed 3.5 lbs. We used a pork loin roast as opposed to the Boston butt listed in the recipe as that is what we had on hand. In addition to the fennel and onions, we sliced up some cabbage we had in the fridge as I thought it would be add a great flavour. Next time I will add potatoes and make more of the rub to mix with the vegetables as they aren't flavourful on their own (water doesn't add flavour). The toasted spices were ground in our coffee grinder, and then added to a food processor with the ouzo and garlic. This rub is amazing! Our roast was done after about 2.5 to 3 hours. Making this again for sure! - 11 May 2010 (Review from Allrecipes US | Canada)