Twice-cooked pork shoulder with wild fennel and spring garlic

"Twice cooking pork is a sure way to keep it moist and tender and delicious" says Matthew Evans. "The better the pork you can buy, especially some older breeds, the better this will taste. I used some local flavours to give our pork a taste of the region. The wild fennel, leeks and garlic are all well washed before use."

• serves

  10

• prep

  15 minutes

• cook

  4 hours

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 4.5 kg boned-out pork shoulder
• 4 litres water, approximately
• trimmings from 4 leeks
• trimmings from 8 spring garlic (or use 10 garlic cloves)
• 3–4 sprigs rosemary 
• 1 generous handful wild fennel fronds
• ⅓ cup salt 

You will need to begin this recipe 1 day ahead.

Instructions

Place the pork shoulder in a large pot. Add just enough water to barely cover.

Add the leek trimmings, spring garlic trimmings, rosemary, fennel fronds and salt. You may need to top up with a little more water to ensure the herbs are covered as they cook and all the flavour is imparted to the pork.

Cover the pot with a lid and place over a high heat until it comes to a simmer, then turn down to a very low heat and cook for 2–3 hours, or until the pork is tender. 

Remove from the heat and remove pork from the liquid.  Leave to cool then place in the fridge overnight. You could, in theory, cook the pork again as soon as it is cool enough to handle, but if you want to do a large joint in the oven, drying in the fridge overnight could well let you crisp the skin.

When ready to cook, either break the meat up into smaller pieces and warm through over a hot barbeque or roast in a hot 200°C oven. The pork is already cooked, so it simply needs to heat through. Taste for herbs and seasoning, adding more if need be.

We served ours in a bun, but you could just as easily make it into a classic roast pork with all the trimmings.

Note

• If you can’t find wild fennel, you need to move house. Seriously though, tops of bought fennel and fennel seed can both be used to add their own character, too.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.