Free range pork with roasted shallots and thyme

Babiche Martens

Ingredients

1	Salt, to season
2	Freedom Farms mini roasts, available at Nosh stores in Auckland and selected butchers or at freedomfarms.co.nz (Main)
10	Shallots (Main)
1	Olive oil, to season
2	Pears
3 sprigs	Fresh thyme
1	Freshly ground black pepper, to season
1 cup	Cider

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Slice the skin off the pork and rub thoroughly with salt and oil, getting right in between the score marks. Place on an oven tray.
2. Peel the shallots, core and slice the pears. Put into an oven dish with some sprigs of fresh thyme, a generous drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, turning once.
3. Heat a heavy based frying pan, add 2 Tbsp olive oil and sear the seasoned pork well on all sides until a deep golden colour. Place a lid on the pan, turn the heat to medium and let cook for 20 minutes.
4. Remove to let rest for 10 minutes. Deglaze the pan with the cider and let reduce for a few minutes. Do this while grilling the crackling.
5. Preheat the grill and cook the crackling until crispy. Pour the cider over the pork before serving with crackling, pears and shallots.