Celebrate with Maggie

Christmas is a time for family and friends to enjoy delicious food. Maggie Beer shares plenty of advice for stress-free entertaining and shows how to celebrate this special time of year with panache and joy.

Roast pork shoulder

SERVES 8 PREP + COOK TIME 2½ HOURS (+REFRIGERATION TIME)

1 Using a scalpel, Stanley knife or small sharp knife, score the skin of the pork just through to the fat.

2 Place pork onto a trivet or rack; tuck bay leaves underneath the pork. Place rack over the sink and pour the boiling water over the pork to open up the skin. Place the rack on a tray and refrigerate uncovered overnight to dry out the skin. 

3 Remove pork from the fridge 2 hours prior to roasting to allow to come to room temperature.

4 Preheat the oven to 240°C (220°C fan-forced) or as hot as your oven will go.

5 Place pork into a medium baking dish. Pat dry the skin of the pork with paper towel then drizzle over the olive oil, rub in the fennel seeds, lemon rind and sea salt.

6 Roast pork for about 30 minutes or until the skin starts to bubble up and blister and you can see it starting to turn into crackling. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C (160°C fan forced) and roast for another 1.5 hours or until the internal temperature of the pork has reached 63°C, using a digital thermometer.

7 Remove pork from oven and deglaze with verjuice, making sure not to drizzle over crackling. Allow to rest for 20 minutes in a warm spot.

8 To serve, remove crackling, chop into pieces. Carve pork, serve with resting juices from roasting tray, Apple, Rosemary & Verjuice Chutney and steamed asparagus and brussels sprouts, if you like.