Braised pork with potatoes and fennel

When I was small, the smell of fresh fennel was highly disagreeable to me.

Actually, I still find the smell of the green, ferny bits of the fennel very overpowering. I think it must be the aniseed smell, not my favourite at all.

However, I always looked at recipes that used fennel and thought that it must be alright as people seem to eat it and like it.

I have had a conversion to fennel in the last few years. You may say I have seen the 'fennel light'. I now really like the fresh, crunchy, almost sweet flavour of this vegetable. I have been known to make a huge bowl of finely sliced fennel with a lemon dressing and gobble this up for lunch!

I have not done much 'cooking' with fennel, preferring to have it raw in salads etc, but in the colder weather of a few weeks back, I threw some fennel into the baking dish when I made this roasted pork shoulder. The result was lovely. The roast fennel became quite sweet, and the texture was lovely and soft, similar to roasted celery. And the juices from the fennel permeated the potatoes and the jus for the meat.

The little people ate it, which I was pleased about, although one asked, "Mum, what is this?"
To which I replied," It's fennel and it's great, eat it up." Can argue with that, can you!

What you'll need

Serves 6

1.5kg boneless pork shoulder piece
12 medium potatoes, cut in half
1 bulb of fennel, roughly chopped
1 cup chicken stock
1 cup dry white wine
1 tablespoon dried tarragon
2 bay leaves
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Vegetables or salad as a side dish

What to do

Preheat the oven to 180° Celsius. In a large baking dish place the pork shoulder piece. Pour of little olive oil over the meat and using your hands, rub the oil into the meat. Now season the meat well with salt and pepper.

Place into the oven and bake for about 25 minutes. Basically this step is to brown the meat slightly.

Meanwhile, in a bowl place the potatoes and fennel and tarragon. Pour over a tablespoon of olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Mix with your hands or a spoon until everything is well-coated.

Remove the pork from the oven and place the potatoes and fennel around it in the baking dish. Pop the bay leaves amongst the potatoes. Pour in the chicken stock and wine and cover the baking dish tightly with foil.

Place back into the oven and cook from approximately 40 - 50 minutes, until the potatoes and fennel are soft and the meat is cooked. You can check if the pork is cooked by placing a skewer into the middle of the thickest part of the meat. If the juices that run out are clear, then it is done. If the juice is pink or red, you'll need to cook it longer.

Remove from the oven. Set it aside to rest for about 5 minutes in a covered dish.

Put the potatoes and fennel in a serving plate. There should be some lovely juice left in the bottom of the pan from the chicken stock. If not, pour in a little water and scrape up any tasty bits of vegetable or meat and spoon this over the potatoes.

Slice the meat and place in a serving dish. Serve while warm with the potatoes and fennel. Serve with a fresh salad or steamed vegetables.