In the kitchen with Colin... (4)

The fourth in the 'series' is from the BBC and created by Cyrus Todiwala  of 'The Incredible Spice Men' and is called Pulled pork with cinnamon and clove. The original recipe can be seen here

My version uses a smaller roast of rolled pork (otherwise we would be eating it for weeks) 

I made the same amount of marinade which was divided into two, the second being bottled and kept for future use.  My marinade was made from...

• 1 tbsp broken pieces cinnamon bark
• 15 cloves
• 2 large red chillies
• 5cm/2in piece fresh root ginger, roughly chopped
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 small red onions, coarsely chopped
• 1 long green chilli
• ½ tsp ground turmeric
• Juice of a lime
• 100ml/3½fl oz cider vinegar
• 1½ tsp brown sugar
• 25ml/1fl oz sunflower oil
• 1½ tsp salt

   

With a pestle and mortar, coarsely crush together the cinnamon and cloves. Gently toast this mixture in a dry frying pan over a low heat until a spicy fragrance emanates from the pan. Set aside to cool.

Put the cooled spice mixture in a blender. Add all of the remaining masala ingredients and blend the mixture to a relatively fine paste. Taste and adjust seasoning if you like.

Rub the masala all over the pork, and place the meat in a dish in which it fits snugly. 

The meat was marinaded overnight

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Pour the oil into a roasting tin and heat on the hob over a medium heat. Scrape any excess masala from the marinated pork, place the pork in the roasting tin and brown well on all sides. Transfer to the oven and cook for 30 minutes.

Reduce the oven heat to minimum. (You can now pour a few tablespoons of marinade over the pork for extra flavour.) Cover the pork tightly with aluminium foil, well tucked in so that the pork steams in the tin and the meat literally falls off when cooked. Cook for a further 3–3½ hours if using a rolled joint, although it may take as long as five hours. If you have the time, the meat will pull apart beautifully after 10 hours of cooking on a low temperature. If using smaller pieces or individual chops, adjust your cooking time accordingly.

Ours was cooked at 100C for 4 hours. This was the result...

It was, as they say, melt in the mouth but rather than pull it apart we sliced it like a traditional roast.

The finished article was superb with a great mild masala / spicy taste. 

If you want to cook any piece of pork, this is well worth a try... It is the third time I have done it and it will definitely will not be the last...