Roast Pork Loin with Crispy Crackling and Cider Gravy

Serves 6

Preparation

Buy your pork at least a day before you plan to cook it. Put it into a dish and pour boiling water over it twice. Drain and then pour cider vinegar over the meat. Put in the fridge overnight. This helps produce a nice crispy crackling.

2kgs Loin of pork, boned and rolled with skin attached. Make sure the skin is scored evenly.
Vegetable oil
Flaked sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 large onions
1tbps plain flour
1 - 2tsp coarse grain mustard
8fl.oz Cider
Cider vinegar
8fl.oz vegetable stock
2 -3fl.oz double cream (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6

When you're ready to cook the pork, rub a little oil over the skin and rub in a generous amount of sea salt on top of the skin and into the score lines.

Cut the onions in half and sit in a roasting tray cut-side up with a little oil over them.

Place the pork on top of the onions and cook for 20 minutes before reducing the heat to 180C/350F/Gas 4 and cook for a further 1 hour 20 minutes. There is no need to baste the pork during cooking as the skin does this for you and ensures the meat is moist while crisping up the skin.

When the pork is cooked, remove from the tray and sit on a plate in a warm place to rest. Remove the onions from the tray and keep warm with the pork.

Remove any excess fat. Put the tray over a medium heat and stir the flour vigorously into the meat juices. Slowly add the mustard; cider and vegetable stock then cook for about 3 -4 minutes until thickened slightly. Finally add the cream if using then season with salt and pepper.

Remove the crackling from the pork and break into pieces. Thickly slice the pork and serve with the onions.