on the bone

After the children had been put to bed we returned to the small, squidgy sofa to watch more Disney, with plates of crackers and blue cheese, glasses of Shiraz balanced on toy boxes. During a particularly moving scene I smeared a knob of butter over his pyjama-ed thigh. I had better take these off, he said slyly, I wouldn't want to butter your bedsheets later.

I had a shoulder of pork in the freezer, and an inclination for potent crackling.

I began with a rub of 5 garlic cloves, 3 inches of grated ginger root, 2 teaspoons of coriander seeds, plenty of black pepper and 4 tablespoons olive oil, blended together furiously. The piece of pork was slathered in the paste and left overnight to breathe in the aromas. Cooked gently for about 4 hours the following day, with a half an hour of serious heat to start the crackle, and a little more blast at the end of the cooking time until the edges blacken and singe and the meat falls away from the bone under the pressure of a fork.

The idea for the asian-style rub came from Ruth Watson's Something for the weekend, a recipe book that I have occasionally enjoyed, as opposed to the majority of my cookery books which i have barely looked at, and the favourites, which i constantly have at hand. My shelves sag with the weight of culinary hopefulness; i need this blog to remind me of the nuggets, otherwise i suffer the pangs of knowing a flavour, but not being able to recreate it.

I also followed Ruth's suggestion of red-hot sweet potato gratin. I recommend it thoroughly, but only alongside a gym membership.

Flipping through the pages to find the recipe again to repeat for this post i found 'well-buggered lamb' on page 66, which must surely be the reason i bought the book in the first instance.