#3: Crackling good roast pork sirloin in your air fryer

Just look at the photos up there. That’s pork sirloin, with perfect crackling — really crunchy, just what a crackling fan wants. And cooked in an air fryer. Not a big very one either. Because, my job is what it is, I have two fairly large air fryers. The biggest is the Kenwood twin drawer air fryer, with a total capacity of 8 litres. Its two drawers are 4 litres apiece. Next up is the Instant Vortex Plus fryer with a 5.7-litre capacity, the biggest air fryer basket I have. That would normally be my choice for a roast, any roast, especially roast chicken.

Then, for my birthday in April, my sister surprised me with a gift-wrapped box. I had no idea what it was and was amazed to find that I now had not one, not two, but three air fryers, and four air fryer drawers, thanks to the Kenwood one having two. This one is a Salton, a cutely compact little fella with a 3.5-litre capacity drawer. It’s not the smallest air fryer on the market by any means, but much smaller than my two big boys. (I see that you get them as tiny as 1.5 litres. What is the point of that? For roasting quails?)

Arriving home with a lovely hunk of pork sirloin intended as a roast, I pulled all the air fryer drawers out and did an assessment of which would make best sense. And it was easy to see that the little Salton one would fit the roast with plenty of space around for hot air to do its work. This is important for any meat cooked in an air fryer: it’s all about the flow of hot air. That’s what cooks the meat — frying has nothing to do with it.

There’s one more unusual thing about this recipe: the seasoning. Caraway seeds. Nothing else, other than salt and pepper. This is a choice worth considering, Yes, we like to mix aromatics together to come up with interesting flavour profiles. But sometimes it’s nice to use only one herb or spice, for the flavour of that alone to do its little bit of magic. I toasted the seeds lightly first, and a lovely spicy aroma wafted through the kitchen.

Finally, a note on the size of the sirloin. I must apologise for not having written down the weight of the joint. I just forgot. But I do have a fairly good eye for assessing the approximate weight of a piece of meat and I’d say it was in the region of 1kg. Neither huge nor tiny, like that new air fryer.

Tony’s crackling good roast pork sirloin

(Serves 4)

Ingredients

1 x 1kg pork sirloin roast with a fat cap

2 Tbsp caraway seeds

Salt and black pepper

Oil

Method

Make sure the joint is at room temperature. Salt the meat on all sides including the fat.

Toast the caraway seeds in a dry pan just until they start to smoke. Grind them to a fine powder.

Sprinkle the ground caraway all over and season with black pepper.

Preheat an air fryer to 200℃.

Add the meat and cook for 15 minutes at 200℃, skin side up. Turn the meat over.

Reduce the heat to 180℃ and cook for 20 minutes with the skin side down.

Turn the joint over and cook for another 10 minutes at 180℃, skin side up this time.

Finally, roast it for another 20 minutes at 160℃, still with the skin side up.

An important note: because air fryers differ in a number of ways (capacity, the shapes of their baskets, and differing cooking settings), a recipe such as this one may need some adapting on the cook’s part. The only way to be sure of this is to keep an eye on the meat while it is roasting, checking now and then, and if, for instance, it seems to be cooking too quickly, adapt the temperature accordingly. 

This one turned out beautifully in a 3.5-litre appliance with good airflow around the meat. Check for doneness by inserting a skewer in the thickest part. The juices should run clear. Then, leave it to rest for 15 minutes. DM

Tony Jackman is Galliova Food Writer 2023, jointly with TGIFood columnist Anna Trapido. Order his book, foodSTUFF, here

Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.