Celebrating Mother’s Day with Debenhams

This Mother’s Day I am planning a day out with the kids to our local country park with their bikes to get some fresh air and build up their appetite for a delicious roast dinner when we get home.

I have to say that my favourite roast is beef, but the family prefer pork with crunchy crackling.

I have to admit that crackling was always something I struggled to cook, but thanks to my Mum I have finally mastered the trick to getting it perfectly crunchy.

While the oven is preheating to 240˚C, score the skin of the pork with the point of a very sharp paring knife all over into thin strips, bringing the blade of the knife about halfway through the fat beneath the skin. Now take about 1 tbsp of crushed salt crystals and sprinkle it evenly over the skin, pressing it in as much as you can.

Place the pork in a roasting tin skin side up and put on a high shelf in the oven and roast it for 25 minutes before turning the oven down to 190˚C calculate the total cooking time allowing 35 minutes to the pound, then deduct the initial 25 minutes cooking time.

The fabulous team at Debenhams heard about my plans and sent some fabulous kitchenware to help me with my plans.

We have already been putting some of the items to the test, making cakes and teaching the kids to cook in the kitchen.

My favourite item is definitely the Joseph Joseph space-saving ‘Nest’ set. I now have room in my kitchen draws as these bowls take up very little room. The three mixing bowls each come with its own egg-cracker, plus an egg separator which can be clipped to any of the bowls – genius.

I also love my new Joseph Joseph chopping boards which have their own categorisation system, designed to reduce the likelihood of cross-contamination of different food types. They have tabs on each board to show what each one is for.

Wish me luck getting my perfect crackling for Mother’s Day, what will you be cooking?