Twelve-Hour Pork Roast
List of Ingredients
submitted by Debbie
7-9 pounds pork shoulder with skin (see note)
12 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tablespoons fennel seeds
8 small dried red chiles, crumbled (I used 1 Tbsp red pepper flakes)
salt and pepper, to taste
Juice of 6 lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
Pan Drippings:
14 ounces canned chicken broth
Juice of 2 lemons
Recipe
Preheat oven to 450F.
Score the pork shoulder all over by slicing deeply into the skin, making cuts 1/4 inch apart.
In a food processor or by hand, chop the garlic, fennel seeds, chiles and salt and pepper until coarsely ground. Rub this mixture all over the pork and into the cuts.
Place the pork on a rack in a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes, or until the skin begins to crackle and brown. Loosen the shoulder from the bottom of the pan and pour half the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil over the pork.
Reduce the oven temperature to 250F and roast the pork for 12 hours more, basting occasionally with the remaining lemon juice and the remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, until it's completely soft under the skin. Push it with your finger; it should give and may even fall off the bone.
For the Pan Drippings: Remove the roast from the pan and spoon off all but 3 tablespoons of the fat from the drippings. Place the pan on the stovetop over medium heat and scrape up all the browned bits stuck to the bottom. When the juices are hot, add the broth and lemon juice (but taste the drippings first; you may not need more lemon), continuing to scrape the pan and reduce the juices for about 5 minutes, or until you have a sauce consistency.
Serve each person a little of the crisp skin along with the meat and pass the pan of drippings separately.
Source: "Suzanne Somers' Get Skinny on Fabulous Food" via "The Best American Recipes 2000"
NOTES : You'll most likely need to order the pork shoulder (butt) ahead of time. Unless you have an Italian, Chinese, or Mexican butcher, th eidea of a pork shoulder with skin on may draw a complete blank. If you're offered a picnic ham with skin--that is, the forearm--just say no; that meat is sinewy and won't have the same lusciousness as the shoulder. There are two other options: the butcher can take the skin off a fresh ham and wrap it around the butt, or you can just forget about the skin and simply wrap the meat in oiled foil once the initial browning takes place. Don't worry about the basting in that case; just skip it. The meat will brown under the foil, and it will be moist and delicious.
Almost surely you'll have leftovers, which are great for sandwiches, to fold into hot tortillas with some salsa, or to cook with hash browns. -- The Best American Recipes 2000
Debbie's notes: This recipe speaks with forked tongue, telling you to place on a rack, then telling you to scrape up the brown bits from the pan bottom. I used a rack the entire time (and am glad I did because the roast gave up a lot of liquid), and because my roast had only a small layer of fat that did not cover the entire area of meat, I covered pan with greased foil as suggested. Since the roast went into the oven and midnight, it did NOT get basted at all and it still was absolutely delicious!
I would be careful with salt--I forgot to put any in the food processor and still found the drippings to be very salty from the chicken broth. Any more salt might have ruined it. I also used Minor's dry roux to make a gravy that was wonderful.
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