Slow roast shoulder of pork with crushed fennel seeds and pickled bramleys

If in doubt pickle especially where apples are concerned at this time of year. Our next door neighbour has as many as we can manage and pickling was something of a last resort but a welcome discovery

The recipe is very straight forward, make a pickling liqour with cider vinegar, sugar and spices and pour hot over thinly sliced bramley apples then put into a sterlized jar. They are lovely with cheese and roasted meats but better as an ingredient

Last week for a tasting we used them inside a rolled shoulder of pork. After deboning the shoulder we stuffed it with toasted crushed fennel seeds, the pickled apples, crushed garlic and grated ginger. The shoulder was tied up and seared for colour then placed in an oven at 150 degrees centigrade for three hours.

We served it with blackened broccoli with lemon zest and garlic and crushed new potatoes