Slow Roasted Vietnamese Pork

A 'No Knife Required Roast'...

If you are not a big pork fan, this recipe should change your mind. I'm using a rolled joint of pork that Nugent Butchers in Cork prepared for me. They scored the fat and tied this pork up for me. I simply just created the marinade and banged it in the oven and forgot about it for 6 hours, which let me to get on with the rest of my day.

Serves 4-6 (depends on their greediness)

Ingredients

• 2 kg pork shoulder, rolled and scored
• 4 tbsp of fish sauce
• 2 lemon grass, bruised
• 2 tbsp of granulated sugar
• 2 red chilis, deseeded and finely sliced
•  thumb size ginger piece, peeled
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled
• 1 tbsp of black peppercorns
• 1 star anise
• 1 tbsp coarse sea salt
• 500g thin egg noodles
• Spring onions
• 3 large mushrooms, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced finely
• 4 chopped spring onions
• Soy sauce
• Freshly chopped mint, coriander, and basil

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees
2. Prepare the marinade: in a mini blender blitz the garlic, ginger, chili, peppercorns, sugar, and star anise 
3. Rub the marinade over the meat and get some inside the scored fat.
4. Rub sea salt into the meat.
5. Put the meat in a roasting tray and add the lemongrass in also.
6. Pour over the fish sauce and roast in the oven for 20 minutes
7. After 20 minutes, take the meat out of the oven and cool the oven down to 140 degrees.
8. Put double foil over the roasting tray and put the meat back in the oven for 5 hours.
9. After the 5 hours, turn the heat up to 200 again and take the foil off. This allows the crackling to cook perfectly.
10. Take out of the oven after being cooked for 20 minutes at 200 degrees. Allow to rest for 20 minutes at least.
11. Just before serving, cook the egg noodles and stir fry the mushrooms, carrots and other remaining chili.
12. Drain the cooked egg noodles, add to the stir fry and pour in some soy sauce and chopped herbs.
13. Divide the noodle stir fry in serving bowls.
14. To carve the meat, cut off the crackling with a knife and simply use a fork to separate the pork.  It's meltingly tender and a trip back for seconds cannot be avoided.
15. Top the noodles with the pulled pork, and top with some chopped herbs and spring onions, and some crackling.