Slow roast loin of pork

Please do accept my apologies for the Instagrammed shot of this meal, I was slightly flustered and very hungry when I dished up, and it was only when M said "aren't you going to take a photo" that I realised my camera was on charge, and I didn't want to go and get his DSLR and fuss, so a phone shot it was to be. 

Anyway, when I'm cooking pork, I normally do a slow roast shoulder which is a firm favourite of ours. So much so, I've not really considered using other cuts. This meant that the pork loin parcel that Farmers Choice sent me was a bit of a thinker. In the end, I decided that I would use a dry rub to add some extra flavour, and cook the pork slowly, just not as slowly as I would a shoulder. Because the fat on the loin parcel is all on the top, not spread throughout like in the shoulder cut it needed to be almost seared, keeping as much moisture in the joint as possible. 

The joint was about 3lb in weight and I worked on the basis of about 45 minutes per pound after the initial 10 minutes. 

Dry rub: Salt, sage, thyme, a crumbled bay leaf, olive oil and pepper. Rub all over the joint

Heat oven up to as hot as it will go - about 250 degrees for my oven. Put sliced onions, or leeks on the bottom of your roasting tin, and lay the pork on top. When the oven is hot, put the pork in the oven for 10 minutes

Turn the oven down to 120 degrees, then cook the pork for 45 minutes per pound

Take it out of the oven, lift out of the roasting pan, cover with a clean tea towel and leave to stand for 10 minutes or so

Put the roasting pan back on the heat, add a glass of wine, and a ladleful of vegetable water and stir to make the gravy. Bring this to the boil while using a wooden spoon to incorporate all the yummy sticky and burnt bits from the bottom of the pan. Here is your gravy.

I then sliced off the thin layer of fat from the top that isn't in itself thick enough to make crackling. Turn this upside down, sprinkle liberally with salt and put back in the oven as hot as it will go until you're ready to serve, voila - crackling. 

We had our pork with roast potatoes, smashed veg (butternut squash, parsnip, swede and carrots) brocolli, stuffing and gravy. M would like to go on the record as saying it was yummy.