Roast Loin of Pork - such a treat!

As previously mentioned, I will admit to being somewhat seduced by a loin of pork when shopping in Asda.  Now, in my defence, I have to say that this doesn't happen often - but when a simply spanking special offer presents itself, I'd consider it churlish to turn it down.

This is why a salt & cracked black pepper coated pork loin had been roosting in my freezer since last week and how come we had the most splendid Sunday roast.

We had the choice of either plain or the coated pork loins and, although I'd have preferred to have had the plain, wound up with a coated one because it appeared to be the leanest.  At a full 1kg, it was a good sized joint to have on a Sunday and yes, I know I'd said I wouldn't be doing a Sunday roast again in a hurry, but like I say, a special offer just can't be refused.  (All of this aversion to cooking Sunday roasts has been totally blown out of the water by what arrived this morning - but we'll get to blogging about that on another day!).

Surprisingly, I'd never cooked a loin previously.  I've done legs and several shoulders, but never a loin - and having seen them cooked on various t.v. programmes, knew just throwing it in the oven and hoping for the best just wasn't the way to go about it.

A bit of research was required - and it is at moments like this that I wonder what we ever did without the internet.  I suppose I'd have telephoned my Mum and taken her advice on the subject.  As it was, I looked up various different recipes and opted for the average method for cooking - that of 20 minutes at blisteringly hot, then an hour - covered - at a medium temperature, followed by another 10 minutes at blisteringly hot.  We didn't have any crackling to produce, as the skin layer had been removed to let the fat layer take on the salt & pepper.  However, this method satisfactorily renders what fat there is and effectively bastes the meat as it cooks.

The resulting roast pork joint was perfectly cooked, being still moist, beautifully tender and with a delightfully crunchy tasty crust.

I served it with roast potatoes, roast parsnips and roast butternut squash, some boiled stringless beans and two cobs of sweetcorn, which I'd separated from their cobs to make eating the kernels easier - oh, and apple sauce, of course.

The gravy was interesting - and fabulous - as in the bottom of the roasting tin was some unctuous dark brown goo that just shrieked "yummy!" at me.  So I drained off the fat (into the roast potatoes & parsnips pan) and made the gravy on top of this epitome of roast pork that is so very intensely savoury.  I sweated off a small chopped onion and added it to the pan along with some chicken stock (having run out of pork stock, it would appear!).  Now don't wince, but I used some Bisto Roast Pork gravy granules to thicken the gravy and wound up with some of the most delicious, dark brown, glossy gravy ever to have graced a table.  It was so good, I kept the leftovers for dipping something into the next day.  (Probably several dogs' tongues, if I can't find any other use for it - but at least it wasn't wasted!).

ROAST LOIN OF PORK


Ingredients :


1kg loin of pork
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
olive oil.


Method :


1.  Pre-heat your oven to 220deg C/425deg F/Gas 7.


2.  If your pork has its skin left on and you are wanting crackling, dry the skin layer with some kitchen towel, score the skin (if it hasn't already been done for you) with a sharp knife and rub sea salt into the skin.  If, alternatively, you aren't bothered about crackling then take a sharp knife and remove the skin layer, leaving a layer of fat on the meat.  Sprinkle the fat layer liberally with freshly ground or cracked black pepper and a little salt and pat to make sure it sticks.  Drizzle a little olive oil over - but not so much that it washes the salt & pepper off.

3.  Place the loin with the fat side uppermost, into a roasting tin that is a suitable size for it and put into the oven for 20 minutes.


4.  Remove from the oven and cover tightly with tinfoil, then replace, turn the oven down to 170deg C/325deg F/Gas 3 and roast for 30 minutes per 500g - so an hour for a 1kg piece.


5.  Remove from the oven and uncover, turn the oven back up to 220deg C/425deg F/Gas 7 and roast again for a maximum of 10 minutes.


6.  Remove, cover and place somewhere warm to rest for 15-20 minutes.


7.  Carve.


.

Pork in cider sauce : a princely thing to do to some pork steaks

I mentioned this in passing, during my piece regarding what was for dinner this week.  I billed it as "a return to man food" - which it certainly was.

When I'd gone to the butchers to get the pork steaks, I was amazed to see that for £2.99 I was getting six steaks cut from what looked like a gorgeous piece of loin - and they certainly lived up to that brief glimpse.

I decided to cook all six steaks, as I wasn't sure whether they'd shrink much and although one steak would be enough for son & heir, hubby might raise an eyebrow at just the one.  As it was, one steak was considerably smaller (having been cut from the end of the piece) which made portioning the meal out a complete doddle.  The two steaks were ample for hubby and I.

My bay tree

This dish really couldn't have been any easier to make.  Sometimes you seem to be cooking and setting aside stuff for ever before you get to put it all together in the final dish - but with this one it's a simple matter of flash frying the steaks and setting them aside while you cook down the onion, then it's everything into the pan and in the oven it goes.  Easy peasy.

Incidentally, the Dabinett Cider from Sheppey's was glorious in this.  It has such a rich fruitiness that stands up well to the onions and the slow cooking.  Not only that, but I used low fat creme fraiche, without any comment from either of the chaps, which I take to mean that it was sufficient unto the cause.  It's definitely a mashed potato dish - you need something to mop up that gorgeous gravy with, because you certainly don't want to leave any on the plate!

31 August 2016

I made this recipe again today, the first time in a long time, and because I had some dill in the fridge and dill is a fundamental flavour in the pork meatballs that go into making Swedish meatballs, I thought I'd add some.  I also added a couple of teaspoonfuls of apple sauce.  Oh, and a little bit of thyme.  Oh and I forgot to include the bay leaves.  Oh yes, and I used wholegrain instead of Dijon mustard.  *sigh*  It was very nearly a whole new recipe.  LOL

However, my message to you is that I have included some of these things in the recipe as the end result was AWESOME!  Honestly, it was really good.  I almost ate that sauce with a spoon.  Here's what it looked like :

Oh yes.  This can come again - and this time, a whole lot sooner!

PORK STEAKS WITH CIDER SAUCE  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

2 tbsp olive oil
700g of pork from the shoulder, or pre-cut steaks

sea salt & freshly ground black pepper

a large onion, thinly sliced

500ml cider

2 bay leaves
15g fresh dill, chopped
15g fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp dried thyme
1 ham or pork stock cube

4 tbsp crème fraiche (use low fat if you want)

2 tsp Dijon mustard.

 

Method :

1.  Pre-heat oven to 160deg C/325deg F/gas 3.

2.  Heat the oil in a large frying pan and sear the pork on both sides, adding a touch of sea salt and black pepper to the one side, (you'll probably need to do this in two batches to maintain the temperature of the pan) then remove from the pan into a flameproof casserole dish with a lid and set aside.

3.  Reduce the heat under the pan to moderate and add the onions.  Fry until softened and golden – around 10 minutes or so.

4.  Add the cider, herbs and stock cube and stir everything through, bringing it to a simmer.

5.  Decant the cidery herby mix into the casserole dish, give everything a light stir to make sure the liquid has reached each piece of pork and cover.  Place into the oven for 2 hours.

6.  At the end of the cooking time, remove the pork and reserve to keep warm.  Either decant the sauce into a saucepan or (if it will handle it) put the dish directly onto the heat.  Stir in the mustard and bring to a boil.  Reduce the sauce by one third and then reduce to a simmer. 

7.  Stir in the creme fraiche and return the pork to the pan until fully re-heated.

Serve with mashed or new potatoes and seasonal vegetables.

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