Winter
Dinner or Lunch
Gluten Free

Roasted Rack of Pork with Fennel and Prunes Recipe

Serve up roast pork rack with fresh fennel and prunes cooked in a blend of Verjuice, EVOO and a touch of lemon.
Roasted Rack of Pork with Fennel and Prunes Recipe
Ingredients
Units
Units
1kg rack of pork
3 plump bulbs fennel, thickly sliced
1 cup whole seedless prunes
1/3 cup (80ml) Maggie Beer Verjuice
1 meyer lemon, thinly sliced
2 tspn salt flakes
1 tbspn roasted fennel seeds
Methods
Prep time: 30 mins, plus resting and drying time / Cook time: 1 hour 10 mins.
1
Using a very sharp knife slice evenly down the pork skin in about 5 mm intervals, being careful not to cut into the meat. Stand the rack in a large baking dish and pour boiling water over the skin. This allows the score marks to open up and release fat during cooking (you may have to repeat this process if the score marks don’t open up enough). Allow the pork to dry (overnight or for about an hour).
2
In the meantime prepare the fennel and prunes. Rehydrate the prunes in the Verjuice over medium heat for 10 minutes, until the prunes have plumped up.
3
Cook the fennel in boiling salted water with a little lemon juice in the water to prevent oxidation. Slice each fennel bulb lUsing a baking dish, layer the fennel slices with lemon slices, then re-hydrated prunes (and juices), and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, topping with the fennel fronds.
4
Using a baking dish, layer the fennel slices with lemon slices, then re-hydrated prunes, and season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper drizzle with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, topping with the fennel fronds. This will be baked alongside the pork rack for the final 40 minutes of roasting time.
5
Preheat oven to 220°C fan forced.
6
Once the pork rack has dried, rub a generous amount of salt and fennel seeds mixed together into the score marks. Drizzle with Aged Red Wine Vinegar, and rub a little Extra Virgin Olive Oil over the top. Place the rack, skin side up into the oven. Cook for 20 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 140°C. Put the fennel and prunes into the oven alongside the pork at this point. Continue to cook the pork for 40 minutes, or until you reach an internal temperature of 65°C, or until the juice runs clear when pierced in the thickest part of the rack (the best way to judge this is with a digital meat thermometer).
7
Remove from the oven, cover loosely with foil and leave to rest for 20 – 30 minutes. The internal temperature will rise to 68-70°C. Serve with the baked fennel and prunes.
Note: A weekend roast is such a wonderful tradition. Start new food traditions and discover new favourites with our range of Cooking Hampers.
Maggie's Kitchen Notes:
All my recipes are cooked with a fan forced (convection) oven, increase by 20°C for conventional. My recipes use 20ml tablespoons and 5ml teaspoons, look carefully at your measuring spoons as American spoons are often on sale and they are a smaller measure. All produce are medium sized and all eggs are from an extra large carton (700g).
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