Gooseberry and Elderflower

I feel terrible because I've not blogged for so long. I've just been so busy though! Not only have I moved in with the lovely Southern Chap, but I've been on a trip to France to look at some Florette lettuces in their fields and been slogging my guts out testing loads of recipes for a huge new cook book.

The move was so hard, but we're settled in now and have even had a succession of people over for dinner. Which has been a great way to get to know my new oven (which I'm rapidly warming to after an initial worry when I found out that it was only a fan oven). First A friend of SC's came and I fed him a pot roast chicken with tarragon gravy, then my pal Ruth came and I made a huge veggie pizza and finally this weekend we entertained 3 boys! A BBQ was planned, but we had 2 problems with this, 1) the weather is crap and 2) we actually don't have a BBQ yet..... so I had to change my menu. I was flicking though the Ottolenghi cook book and came across their gorgeous recipe for roast belly pork with a gooseberry and elderflower sauce. I had a punnet of gooseberries in the fridge, and had just bough a bottle of elderflower cordial, so decided this would be what I'd try out.

Now, I realise that the last recipe I wrote about cooking was also for pork belly, so I'd like to say that I do actually eat other things, but obviously I'm having a fatty phase.

Anyway it was all pretty easy to prepare: the gooseberries cooked down slowly in a pan with elderflower cordial, sugar and a little muslim bag of sliced fresh ginger and mustard seeds. Eventually becoming a sharp, sweet mixture that was actually reminiscent of apple sauce!

Meanwhile I heated the oven up to 250C (230C in my new super hot fan oven), smeared the underside of my huge bit of pork (2.5kg)with a blitzed mixture of rosemary, thyme, garlic and oil, then turned it over and lightly salted the skin that my butcher had beautifully scored. My piece of meat then needed only 40 minutes for the skin to crisp nicely, before turning the oven down, adding a bottle of wine to the bottom of the pan and cooking for another 2 hours. All the while we sat outside and salivated at the gorgeous smells coming from the kitchen!

I must say that this is the best piece of roast pork I have ever eaten. Though the meat had a long cooking, the liquid in the bottom of the pan meant that the meat didn't dry out. It was not only moist, but had the very best crackling ever, which was crispy, salty and perfect! I served it with some simply boiled new potatoes, tossed in a little butter and lots of chopped mint, as well as some stir-fried runner beans, that I dressed with a little red wine vinegar (which sounds a bit odd but was really good, especially since the sharpness of the vinegar cut through the fattyness of the pork a little).

It was a great meal and to keep the perfectly seasonal tip going I offered my gooseberry and elderflower cupcakes as dessert!