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Roast Pork! Crack(l)ing good stuff...

Weekly Topic: What is the best Christmas dish in your country/area?

Dec 17, 2021 | 1 Comments

It’s always difficult to answer a question that starts with ‘What is the best OO?’, because the answer will almost certainly be a subjective one. 


It is hard enough with music, or novels, or films, but I find it especially hard to answer this kind of question when it is about food; my answer will often depend on what I am hungry for when you ask me!


I think it is fair to say that England is quite well known for its roast meats, and at Christmas we have a variety of options to choose from. 


In Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, the Cratchitt family prepare a roast goose for their Christmas meal, which is famously replaced with a huge Turkey by the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge.


Roast chicken is popular if you are preparing a Christmas meal for fewer people, and roast beef is practically a national symbol, but today I am going to talk about roast pork.


Recently I have been enjoying a particular cut of pork - belly with the skin on.


There are a number of ways to prepare it, but at the moment my favourite is to roll it up and tie it, so that it cooks in a tube shape, looking a bit like a Chashu.


I am rather cheating here, as the preparation style I am using is heavily influenced by ‘lechon liempo’ - a dish from the Philippines - and inside the salted and peppered interior I wrap lemongrass, spring onion, and thin slices of red onion.


It stays in the oven for two hours at 170 degrees (Celsius of course), then gets a brushing of milk on the skin and goes back in for a final 30 minutes.


It slices well, and can be eaten with roast potatoes and gravy, with white rice, and I have even used thin slices of it in some ramen I made.


For Christmas dinner this year however, I think I will be making chicken.


Do you enjoy roast meat? Do you have a favourite recipe? If you’d like to talk about it, book a Conversation and Correction lesson, and let me know all about it! 

This column was published by the author in their personal capacity.
The opinions expressed in this column are the author's own and do not reflect the view of Cafetalk.

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