Slow roasted smoked pork shoulder with chipotle mayonnaise

It was supposed to be a thank-you-for-all-the-love-and-birthday-presents dinner, but it turned out to be a bit of a messy even with an ever changing list of mobile calorie intake units guests. I ended up cooking for 8 (plus blog), when only 6 had confirmed. To make things works,  one of the units guests got lost in Dübendorf looking for my flat (true story). It might have been a blessing in disguise: again, I had to fight bravely for the last piece of meat to feed my blog… That good it was. For bonus points, it is super easy to do. You just put it in the stove and (sort of) forget about it. And, happy guests, happy host.

Slow roasted smoked pork shoulder with chipotle mayonnaise (adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s Home Cooking)

Ingredients

For the pork

• 3 tablespoons hot smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons raw sugar cane
• 4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
• 4 thyme sprigs, leaves finely chopped, stems reserved
• Olive oil
• 2.5Kg pork shoulder
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the chipotle mayonnaise

• 300g mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons of chipotle paste
• 1 teaspoon runny honey
• 1 tablespoon wholegrain mustard

Method

Preheat the oven to 140ºC

Mix the paprika, sugar, garlic and thyme leaves in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper, then add a little olive oil to create a paste. Rub the mixture all over the pork, massaging it into the meat. If possible, leave in the fridge overnight to marinate. If not, you can start cooking straight away.

Roast for 1 hour, then cover with foil and cook for a further 4–5 hours, until the meat is really tender and falling off.

Meanwhile, make the chipotle mayonnaise. Combine all the ingredients in a bowl, season with salt and pepper and mix well.

Once the pork is cooked, cover it loosely with foil and set aside to rest for up to 1 hour. Serve with the smoky mayonnaise.