Roast leg of insurance salesman
Or, in actuality, pork. I decided to follow Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s instructions, from his Meat Book. So, the oven was preheated to 230C and the meat went in for about twenty-five minutes. After that, I turned the oven down to 160C and the joint had about 25 minutes per 500g. 15 minutes before it came out, I drained some of the fat into another tray to roast potatoes in (these having previously been par-boiled for about 5 minutes.) When the meat came out, the oven went up to 200C for the next half an hour. Before leaving the meat to rest, I took the crackling off and put that back in the oven to finish crisping up.
Pan gravy: a much under-rated cooking skill it seems. To make a gravy, I put the roasting tray on the hob to heat up. The aim here is boil off most of the juices to concentrate the flavour and to darken any little burnt bits. When it was looking dark, I added enough flour to form a paste with the fat, then fresh water. Shortly after this stage, I usually transfer the whole concoction to a saucepan to allow for better stirring. When it was thick enough, in went some fresh black pepper. Perfect.
It was good – the pork moist, so the gravy mostly went with the (crispy) roast potatoes and the steamed cabbage and leeks. I finished up my Fortnum’s apple sauce with it – sad to see that one go, but it’s been delicious. There’s plenty of pork left over, too, for sandwiches.