Unauthentic German pork knuckles

The first time i had real German pork knuckles was when we were invited by a German couple friend for dinner over their house.

They specially flew the pork trotters here just for us when they went home for holiday. Man, it was enormous!!

However, it didn't quite leave an impression except the crispy crunchy skin which i didn't get to eat much then due to my then-braces.

Feeling a little adventurous these days, so i decided to try baking my own German pork knuckles. Usually, whenever i have pork trotters in the fridge, it'd be used to make Teochew braised trotters but not this time round! ;)

My very first attempt of baking pork knuckles..



After doing some recipe reading online, i decided to adapt my own version, remembering well what i dislike when i had the friend's authentic knuckles.

For one, mine was a little more flavourful.

I didn't just roast it like that with salt and pepper.

What i did was to boil it with a pot of chicken stock together with some root vegetables for over an hour + salt. Then, it was roasting time for 30-45 minutes but not before i rubbed the skin with lots of oil and salt to make it real skin.

While roasting, i didn't baste the skin even once with the good gravy to keep the skin dry and crispy. For the last 15 minutes before it is done, i switched my oven from roasting to grilling simply because i was kiasu! I really wanted a to-die-for skin! Heh.

Verdict : awesome! The skin was done exactly what i wanted. As for the meat, ooh la la... moist, soft and tender + full of flavour, from the chicken stock with root vegetables. Not even a single piece of meat could be found on the bones at the end of the dinner.

It was a total hit!

Everyone loves the skin to bits, especially the kiddos.

Will i cook this again?

You bet!

Despite the many many work.

p.s : wanted to take more photos but unfortunately, as USUAL, the camera battery died on me on my very first click. UGH!