Roast Pork

[Marlene]

Tomorrow is Sunday, and Maggie's fine article McArthur's Law has me thinking about a full blown Sunday dinner.

I've got a lovely boneless 5 lb pork roast that I'll be cooking up. I was originally going to spit roast it, but the forcast is calling for rain tomorrow so that may be out. Normally, I just stick a pork roast in the oven and roast it on convection with some potatoes around it.

I'm thinking about some sort of glaze/crust to try this time though, maybe a mustard crust of some sort? And I'm coming up blank on ideas. Any suggestions?

[christine007]

I love to glaze mine with a mixture of apricot preserves, soysauce, ginger and garlic. simmer this in a saucepan on low heat till blended.

No real recipe, more like taste to see if you'd like more garlic, etc.

Add some black pepper too.

[deltadoc]

You might enjoy basting it with a mixture of hoisin sauce, soy sauce, ginger and plum jelly. I always reserve a bit of the sauce to serve with the finished dish.

doc

[Lan4Dawg]

I like to take the dijon mustard jars--you know the ones where you just can not quite get the last table spoon of mustard out of it and hate to waste it--and fill them about a 1/4 full w/ white wine. Shake well and then add some olive oil, garlic, fresh rosemary, salt & pepper and throw the entire thing in the food processor until a paste is formed (yes, you might have to add more mustard and do not ask for measurements b/c I have absolutely no idea I just add until it looks & tastes right). Coat the pork (it also works exceptionally well on chicken and lamb) and then roast per usual or grill and add some fresh rosemary stalks to the coals. Since I am of the opinion that you can never have too much rosemary I also like to roast potatoes in olive oil w/ minced garlic and rosemary to serve on the side.

[Ann_T]

You could poke a hole down the middle and stuff with prunes and apricots and marniate for a few hours in a mixture of white wine, sage, thyme, minced garlic, salt, pepper. Brown the roast and some carrots and onions, deglaze the pan with reserved marinade add a litte beef or chicken broth to the pan, cover and braise in the oven. When cooked, transfer the meat to an oven proof pan and brush pork with dijon mustard and brown sugar and return to a 450°F oven until the coating is bubbly and crisp.

Strain the pan juices, skim off the fat and make a sauce.

Ann

[Marlene]

Keep the suggestions coming. While I"m at it, I'm sure Maggie's article took many of you for a walk down memory lane. So here's my challenge, Tomorrow's Sunday. I dare you, no, double dare you to re-create your favourite Sunday roast or Sunday dinner from your childhood and post about it.

Are you up for it?

[Della]

I just recently tried a new pork roast recipe and thought it was quite good. We love pork at our house and eat it quite a bit. This is from the Silver Spoon cookbook and it is "Lonza Al Ginepro" or Loin of Pork with Juniper.

Since I can't follow a recipe I made some adjustments and I used pork shoulder rather than loin since that is what I had on hand......

Cut some small incisions in the roast and insert some small slices of shallot. Marinate the pork for a couple of hours with one chopped up onion, 10 - 15 juniper berries, slight lycrushed (I used the full 15), a couple of bay leaves (I used 3 fresh), a 1/4 cup of white wine (or so) and 2 or 3 tbls spoons of olive oil. I had to adjust the amount of liquid in the marinade to accomodate my larger than 1 1/2 lb roast.

After marinating for a couple hours - preheat oven to 350, drain the pork (reserve the marinade), wrap it in thin slices of pancetta, tie the whole thing up with kitchen string and roast - basting with the reserved marinade once in a while. When done just serve with the pan juices.

It was really good, really easy and a change of pace from our traditional rosemary or sage with garlic, lemon, mustard and wine or the once in a while hoison, garlic, honey combo.

Edited April 22, 2006 by Della (log)

[Dave the Cook]

. . . . .

here's my challenge, Tomorrow's Sunday.  I dare you, no, double dare you to re-create your favourite Sunday roast or Sunday dinner from your childhood and post about it. 

Are you up for it?

←

Great idea, Marlene. Folks, post your results in the discussion following Maggie's article.

As for the problem at hand, it sounds like you're after something simple. Riffing on Lan4Dawg's rosemary idea (and swiping a trick from Lamb Roasting 101), why not go even more traditional on the roast, and add a nice sauce? Something like:

1-1/2 C bread crumbs

1-1/2 t chopped fresh rosemary

1 t chopped fresh thyme

1 T minced garlic, knife-pureed with a healthy pinch of coarse salt

3 T vegetable oil

lots of ground black pepper

Combine thoroughly.

I'm thinking you'll want to remove the fat cap, if the roast has one. These days, boneless roasts don't, or not much anyway. You could do it before roasting, or when you remove it from the oven.

Roast the pork until it's about 115 F. Remove it from the oven, let the surface cool a bit, then dry it off as best you can.

Brush it with mustard (I'd use whole-grain, but a brown or Dijon-style would be fine).

Spread the bread crumbs out on a piece of parchment, aluminum foil, or a baking sheet. Roll the roast in it, then pack as much more of the crumb micture on as you can. Put the roast back in the oven and roast to desired temperature (for me, that's about 140 F; carryover takes it to the 150-155 range). You might have to crank up the broiler at the end to brown the crumbs, or torch them lightly.

While all that's going on, make a jus:

12 ounces stock -- pork if you've got it, chicken if you don't

2 T roasted garlic

1 T minced onion, shallot or 2 T scallion whites

1/4 C minced fresh rosemary

1/2 t minced fresh thyme

1 lemon, skinned and cut into four chunks

salt to taste

Combine in a small saucepan and simmer, reducing to about one cup. Strain and serve warm.

[Jason Perlow]

I like the Puerto Rican/Cuban method myself. Rub the Pork with Adobo seasoning and little bit of mustard, cut a lot of slits into the meat and stuff with crushed garlic mixed with olive oil, and then marinate the roast in a big freezer bag in a lot of citrus juice (orange, lime, and some sour orange -- if you can't get sour orange I like to use a combination of lemon, lime, grapefruit, and orange juice, or Goya's "Mojo" marinade.) with crushed chile pepper and black pepper overnight. Then slow cook for a few hours. I use this method for marinating pork roasts and pork tenderloins as well. Also works great for Chicken too.

This variation calls for vinegar instead of citrus juice:

http://members.tripod.com/~apadilla98_2/re...echon-asado.htm

And the 3 guys from Miami version:

http://icuban.com/food/lechon_asado.html

[Mistinguett]

Salt and pepper the meat, brush mustard in a fairly thick layer, spread some horseradish as even as possible, and press bread crumbs into the mustard. Roast. Like Dave said, you might need to broil for a few minutes to brown the breadcrumbs.

[jayt90]

For a fast meal (weekday, not Sunday) I often use a bottled Teriyaki-Wasabi sauce from the huge box store.

It makes a nice glaze on pork, or chicken, and the flavour is good.

[TongoRad]

Lots of great ideas here so far. I always seem to have a loin roast in the freezer because we seem to pick one up whenever it goes on sale, and I'll have to try some of these in the future.

Here's what I've been doing with mine lately- lay sage leaves and thyme sprigs all over the exterior and truss it up. Before roasting give it the old salt, pepper and olive oil treatment. Nothing exciting so far, but it makes a solid meal. At this point I take a bunch of sliced onions and toss them with sage leaves and olive oil- put those guys in the bottom of a roasting pan with the pork roast directly on top of them. Add a couple of ounces of white wine at the bottom (the loin roast will give off little in the way of juices or fat, unfortunately) and roast it at 325 until it is done to your liking (I go for mine on the pink side). At some point the wine will evaporate and the onions will start to caramelize. Now here is the part I really like- while the roast is resting you heat up the onions in the roasting pan on the stovetop with a splash of balsamic vinager and maybe some more wine, incorporating any drippings that you can. It makes for a wonderful sweet/sour dark onion relish to accompany the slices of pork (I also prefer not to remove the sage from the roast as I slice it, though I think you sort have to get rid of the thyme stems). The last time I did this it was on the outdoor grill with grape vine smoke, which was nice but not necessary.

Edited April 22, 2006 by TongoRad (log)

[maggiethecat]

This is a braise not a roast, but as pork is pointlessly lean these days the recipe is reliable –tender meat and gravy so good you’ll slap your Momma. It’s a Danish recipe (cholesterol alert!) from the Time-Life “Cooking of Scandinavia.” Pull out a covered casserole not too much larger than your roast – great use of your Le Creuset. Turn the oven to 350.

Cut a lengthwise pocket with a long sharp knife that comes within one inch of the sides of the roast. Stuff with prunes (sorry, dried plums!) and smallish chunks of fresh apple... Dry off the roast and brown in the casserole – 3T butter, 3 T canola. It can take up to twenty minutes to get in browned on all sides. Pour off the fat, or suck it out with a bulb baster.

Add a teaspoon of salt, ¾ cup white wine, ¾ cup heavy cream. Stir up the brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Cover her up and put it in the oven for up to an hour and a half –until tender when pierced with the tip of a knife. (Check that the liquid isn’t boiling down too quickly. If it is, top it up with a mixture of wine and water.) Let the meat rest on a platter, then boil down the sauce to one cup, stirring occasionally. Ingredient alert: Stir in a tablespoon of red currant jelly. If unavailable, apricot, cherry or plum preserves work well. Actually, a jamless version is still wonderful, but that fruity whiff is so Danish.

Be prepared to fight your family for the sauceboat. You won’t have much left over, but if you do it’s the filling for the Best Sandwich Ever.

[Marlene]

Question. I don't have any roasted garlic and I really don't have time to make some right now. How will that affect the sauce Dave? Sunday cooking is in full swing over here!

[PicnicChef]

Salt crusted with a warm mustard sauce. Very southern, very delightful.

[Dave the Cook]

Question.  I don't have any roasted garlic and I really don't have time to make some right now.  How will that affect the sauce Dave?  Sunday cooking is in full swing over here!

←

Just smash three good-sized cloves and drop them in to simmer. You might check for sweetness towards the end, and add a pinch or two of brown sugar to round things out, if necessary.

[fryguy]

Last time I roasted off a pork loin, I stuffed it with some beet greens, swiss chard, dried cherries and some manchego and made a quick maple/apple cider vinegar gastrique to serve with it. Turned out pretty well. I put some roasted baby fingerlings and beets on the side.

[nhconner]

This is my favorite way these days.

Boil a gallon of water. Add a cup of kosher salt. Add smashed garlic, smashed shallots, and any fresh herbs you can get your hands on. Sage and thyme are a natural delightful choice. Throw in some whole peppercorns and a bay leaf or two. Take the brew off and let it cool to room temp.

Throw in the pork and brine in the fridge for 24hrs. Roast and serve with prunes reconstituted in chicken stock with a splash of brandy.

Works every time.

Juicy flavorful and addictive.

Nate

[ChefJB]

The one that I fall back on alot is to rub the pork with 5 spice powder, salt, and pepper. Roast it at 275* to an internal temp of 135* tent with foil and rest for 30 minutes, serve with a ginger scented cider veal reduction. mmmmmmmm.

[Marlene]

I've detailed the pork and various dishes over here

but here's what it looked like going in the oven and coming out:

Contrary to Dave's instructions, I rolled the roast in breadcrumbs right at the beginning and it seemed to work fine. The crust didn't burn, and I didn't need the kitchen torch to brown it!

[ingridsf]

This is a braise not a roast, but as pork is pointlessly lean these days the recipe is reliable –tender meat and gravy so good you’ll slap your Momma. 

I sure don't want to keep anybody from slapping his/her Momma but here goes. I never buy pork loin roasts anymore! I only buy fresh hams (if I need a LOT of pork) or shoulder blade roasts, bone-in or out. They're all a heck of a lot cheaper and the flavor, juiciness and tenderness are practically indestructable. And they yield lots of pan-drippings for gravy, my favorite beverage.

All of these recipes sound mouth-watering and I suggest giving them a shot with one of these cuts instead of the loin.

[jackal10]

All these posts, and no one has mentioned crackling????

Whats the point of pork roast without the crackling?

Score well, anoint with salt and EVOO, then LTLT cook (60C for 12 hours), then hot finish - 250C for half an hour.

Sage and onion stuffing, apple sauce, roasties (with roast onion), parsnips, carrots and some member of the cabbage family...followed by the first of the early rhubarb and custard.

What to do with the left-overs, besides sandwiches? Char sui bao of course, but also cubed for other asian dishes, like sweet and sour pork, or even curry.

Edited April 24, 2006 by jackal10 (log)

[Toliver]

My Mom's favorite was Pork Roast with Sauerkraut, dumplings, and potato pancakes. A delicious Bohemian-Polish menu...

[KARENR65]

Did anyone see Daisy Cooks this weekend? She did a Cuban Roast Pork (similar to the one Jason was talking about) that I would love to try but can't find the recipe anywhere. I would greatly appreciate anyone who may have it.

[Jason Perlow]

Did anyone see Daisy Cooks this weekend?  She did a Cuban Roast Pork (similar to the one Jason was talking about) that I would love to try but can't find the recipe anywhere. I would greatly appreciate anyone who may have it.

←

The one on the 3 Guys From Miami page is very similar to the one she has.

http://icuban.com/food/lechon_asado.html

Her recipe is on page 212 of her book Daisy Cooks!. It just calls for a pork shoulder and her "Wet Rub" which she uses for chicken and pork, steaks and fish:

12 Cloves of Garlic

1 1/2 teaspoons of kosher salt

1 tablespoon of black peppercorns

2 tablespoons of dry oregano

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 tablespoons of white wine vinegar

The dry ingredients are pounded with a mortar and pestle after which they are added to the oil and vinegar.

Additionally, many Cuban Roast Pork recipes call for dried cumin from whole cumin seeds. I use Goya Adobo with Cumin, and crushed chile pepper in addition to the rub above as well as mustard and the citrus juice combo (lime, lemon, orange, grapefruit -- you want it to be sour) to marinate the pork for 6 hours or overnight before roasting.

Edited April 24, 2006 by Jason Perlow (log)