Note: can also be made with lamb shank if pork is a
no-no, though pork is better.
Note: benefits from marinading overnight.
Note: pork knuckle is ridiculously cheap; at time of writing
about £3 for the above knuckle, though of course there is a
large bone in the middle.
Serves 4 (half a knuckle per person: they're usually huge
and this recipe is very strong in taste so you don't need much).
Ingredients
For the marinade:
400 ml good tasty stout
1 tbsp ground cumin
2 tsp fennel seeds
3 tbsp olive oil
For the rub:
50 gm coarse salt (e.g. Maldon sea salt)
35 gm light brown sugar
20 gm English mustard powder
5 gm freshly ground black pepper
For the meat:
two large pork knuckles
half a bottle of dry white wine
1 tsp salt
2 tsbp cornflour for thickening
Method
Mix the marinade ingredients together in a bowl big enough
to hold the meat.
Stab/score the meat deeply, down to the bone, so that the
marinade can get inside it.
Put the meat into the bowl, ensuring that it is immersed in
the marinade.
Cover and leave in the fridge, preferably overnight,
turning the meat half way to ensure good coverage.
Heat the oven to 180 C.
Transfer the pork knuckle, with the marinade, to a
casserole; add the white wine and the salt.
Cook, covered for 3 hours, turning the joints half way.
Remove the casserole from the oven and whack the heat up to
250 C.
Remove the knuckles from the casserole onto a shallow
oven-proof tray, transferring the juices to a saucepan, via a
gravy separator if possible.
Mix together the ingredients for the rub.
Rub the rub into the pork knuckles, getting it as deep into
the cracks and crevices of the meat as you can.
Position the pork knuckles upright on the tray if you can,
or if not then fattiest-side-up, and return them to the oven
for 30 minutes.
While the knuckles are roasting, boil the saucepan of juice
vigorously to reduce it by half.
Mix the cornflour with some of the juices in a small bowl
and stir this into the juices in the saucepan also.
When the meat is done it should pretty much fall from the
two bones that are inside each knuckle; cut the meat up and
place it into a serving dish.
