Roast Loin of Pork with Crackling and Gooseberry Sauce

Brown's of Stagsden provided Mum with a real Easter treat. A firm, long cylinder of porkyness. Dry skin, well scored with a Stanley knife got me salivating about the possibility of top class crackling. Too often a rarity. Too frequently like a soggy savoury toffee that threatens to rip out fillings and stick teeth together.

With such a healthy layer of fat and an emphasis on the crackling it's important to balance this greasyness with an acidic sauce. Mum's freezer was full of gooseberries which I boiled down with a good glug of elderberry cordial and a bucket load of sugar! It reduced down to a gorgeously unusual sauce that I strained and could barely resist downing in one! Oddly it becomes a dark plummy colour when stewed.

The pork was gorgeous. The crackling was spectacular and the gooseberry sauce was sensational. I got a bit carried away in the cooking and eating and only fired off a couple of photos at the end to document the triumphant aftermarth.





Pork and gooseberries are made for each other!