Fennel roasted pork rack with silverbeet and sautéed potatoes

This is a beautifully tasty juicy meal, as long as you take care not to overcook the pork. I found this recipe last year in an old Cuisine magazine and took a photograph of the recipe. It’s supposed to be served with quince jelly on the side, but that’s not something I usually have in my pantry, so I left this out.

Because there are only four people in our family I halved the recipe – this is what you need for four:

Pork:

• 1 x 4 rib pork rack, bones scraped clean
• 3 tablespoons of fennel seed, dry toasted in a pan and then loosely crushed in a mortar and pestle
• 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• finely grated zest of 2 lemons
• fresh black pepper
• 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
• salt

With a sharp knife score the skin on the pork in 1 cm strips, cutting through to the fat under the skin. Mix all the ingredients, except the salt, and rub this all over the pork. Leave to marinate in the fridge, preferably overnight, or at a minimum for a couple of hours.

Preheat the oven to 240° C. Pat the pork dry with paper towels then season the skin and pork with salt.Place the pork on a rack in a roasting dish then pour in some water so it’s just touching the pork. You may need to top this up as the cooking progresses. Roast for 30 minutes then reduce the heat to 190°C and cook for a further 45 minutes.

After cooking remove from the oven and rest for up to 25 minutes in a warm place. While that is happening remove the juice from the roasting dish to a wide mouthed jug and cool in the fridge. Once the fat has settled on top, spoon it off and then reduce the sauce in a pan to ⅔ cup.

Potatoes

• 8 medium Agria potatoes, peeled and cut into 8
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 3 tablespoons of butter, unsalted if you have it
• 1 bulb garlic, broken into cloves and left unpeeled
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons thyme leaves

Preheat the oven to 200° C – or put the potatoes into the same oven the pork is cooking in. Put the potatoes in a pan with cold water and salt, bring to the boil then drain well.

Heat the olive oil and butter in an ovenproof frying pan. Add the drained potatoes, garlic and thyme, and season with salt and pepper. Toss with the butter and oil mixture then place in the oven to cook for 20-30 minutes, or until golden brown and crispy. Turn them only once during roasting.

To serve

• silverbeet, with stalks removed and chopped
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• sea salt
• ground black pepper
• juice of one lemon

Boil the stalks in plenty of well salted water until nearly tender. Add the leaves until all tender. Drain then toss in olive oil and lemon juice.

Slice the pork rack, one portion per person. Serve on top of silver beet with potatoes on the side. If you have quince paste serve that as a condiment.

This was so succulent, the fennel is a wonderful aromatic herb that compliments the pork well. Delicious!