Cranberry Glazed Pork Roast

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...I love the taste and flavor of pork, as well as the ease with which it can be prepared. Chops and tenderloins are perfectly sized for today's smaller families and even the larger loins can be cut to prevent endless leftovers. Pork is also inexpensive. Our warehouse store sells large single loins for about $2 a pound. Most of the loins weigh 8 to 9 pounds each and can be cut into meal size portions that are more appropriate for today's families. I usually divide these loins into thirds and freeze them for later use as whim dictates. Unfortunately, I usually spend the money I save buying meat this way on ingredients with which to sauce it. When I prepare a loin for roasting, I tie the meat into a cylinder of uniform size and brown it before roasting. I cook my pork loin to an internal temperature of 140 degrees. When I take it out of the oven, I tent it in foil and let it sit for another 15 minutes. The roast continues to cook and at the end of the rest period it will reach 150 - 155 degrees, a perfect temperature for pork. I've been experimenting with cranberries lately and I wanted to use them to make a glaze that could be used for pork or chicken. I finally have come up with one I think is acceptable and a somewhat different than standard fare. It is a bit pricey, but it is wonderfully flavorful and will give your palate a joyful jolt. I've left the berries whole for the photograph, but the sauce can be strained and you may actually prefer to use it that way. Here's the recipe for cranberry glazed roast pork.

Cranberry Glazed Roast Pork...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
Glaze
1 (12-oz.) bag fresh cranberries
1/3 cup chopped fresh ginger
Zest and juice of 1 large orange
1 cup sugar
1-1/4 cups cranberry juice
1/4 cup orange liqueur
Roast
1 ( 2-1/2 to 3 pound) center cut boneless pork loin
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided use
4 teaspoons coarse garlic salt
2 teaspoons coarsely cracked fresh pepper
2 teaspoons dried marjoram

Directions:
1) To prepare glaze: Combine cranberries, ginger, sugar, orange zest and orange and cranberry juices in a saucepan. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring occasionally. Reduce heat and cook until cranberries burst and sauce thickens, about 5 to 10 minutes. If you wish, strain through a fine mesh sieve and allow to cool. When cool add orange liqueur.
2) To prepare roast: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Using kitchen twine, tie roast at 1-inch intervals to form a cylinder of uniform circumference. Rub all surface of roast with 1 teaspoon olive oil. Rub cylinder with all of salt pepper and marjoram. Heat remaining 1 tablespoon oil in a large, heavy ovenproof skillet. Add pork and sear all surfaces well. Brush pork with glaze. Transfer skillet to oven and bake for 15 minutes. Brush again with glaze and cook for another 20 minutes, or until pork reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees. Remove from oven. Brush again with glaze, tent with foil and let rest for 15 minutes before slicing. Yield: 6 servings.

You might also like these recipes:
Maple Rosemary Glazed Pork - What's Cookin, Chicago?
Pork Tenderloin with Honey Glazed Apples -Food and Whine
Pan Roasted Pork Chops with Cranberries and Swiss Chard - Dinner Du Jour
Slow Cooker Pork Chops - The Hungry Housewife
Roast Pork Tenderloin with Pears and Figs - Verses from my Kitchen
Pork Milanese - Bored Cook in the Kitchen

Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...Years ago this succulent pork roast would have been considered proposal food. The recipe for it was developed for Fine Cooking Magazine by Tasha DeSerio and was judged by their staff to be one of their best recipes of 2009. You can find their list here. I'm always a bit suspicious when recipes come with such high praise. Taste is a very subjective thing and I have a problem with anything that purports to be the "best" of class. Every once in a while, I come across something that really is outstanding and this recipe is one of those instances. It makes an amazingly tender roast with very little effort, though there is significant wait time required to produce the results you want to see. I like to start this process several days before I plan to serve the pork. The roast is rubbed with salt and pepper and is refrigerated for 1 to 3 days before being slowly cooked in the oven at a very low temperature. The end result is a fork tender roast that remains moist without being stringy. You also have an assembly of vegetables so meltingly good that you'll wish had doubled or tripled the quantity of them you prepared. The pork is wonderful and can be served with vegetables for a meal, but it also makes amazing pulled pork sandwiches that are so flavorful that no additional sauce is required. I hope you'll try this almost effortless meal. Here's the recipe.

Slow-Roasted Pork Shoulder...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite, courtesy of Fine Cooking Magazine

Ingredients:
1 6 to 7-lb. boneless pork shoulder roast
2 tablespoons kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly ground pepper
1 large yellow onion, cut into 1/2-inch-thick rings
3 medium carrots, cut into sticks 1/2 inch wide and 2 to 2-1/2 inches long
10 cloves garlic, peeled
1 cup dry white wine

Directions:
1) Combine salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub mixture over all surfaces of pork shoulder. Place the pork, fat side up, in a 12 x 16 x 3-inch pan. Cover and refrigerate for 1 to 3 days.
2) When ready to proceed, remove pork from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature.
Position a rack in center of oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Uncover pork and roast until tender at the margins but center still offers some resistance, about 4 to 4-1/2 hours. Add onion, carrots, garlic, wine, and 1 cup water to roasting pan and continue to roast, stirring vegetables occasionally, until the pork is completely tender, about 1 hour more.
3) Remove roast from oven and raise oven temperature to 375 degrees F. Using tongs, separate the pork into 8 to 10 large, rustic chunks and spread out on pan. If most of liquid has evaporated, add a splash more water to create a little more juice. (It shouldn’t be soupy.) Return pork to oven and continue to roast until nicely browned on newly exposed surfaces, about 15 minutes longer. Remove pan from oven, transfer meat and vegetables to a serving platter, and tent loosely with foil. Let rest for 20 minutes. Skim excess fat from juices and serve warm with vegetables and meat. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

You might also enjoy these recipes:
Crockpot Pork Roast - Annie Bakes
Smoked Pineapple Pork - Coconut and Lime
Dimitri's Pork Roast - Tobias Cooks
Cajun Pork Roast - The Teacher Cooks
Garlic and Herb Crusted Pork Roast - Almost Slowfood
Arista: Tuscan Herb Roasted Pork Roast - One Perfect Bite

Arista - Tuscan Herbed Roasted Pork

From the kitchen of One Perfect Bite...A few weeks ago I was notified that my blog had been randomly selected as the winner of a Foodie Blogroll giveaway and that I would receive an autographed copy of Judy Francini's new book, Secrets from My Tuscan Kitchen. When the book arrived I spent an evening paging through it and selecting recipes I wanted to try. Arista - today's recipe - is a Tuscan pork roast similar to the Tuscan Pork Loin, already on my blog. I wanted to compare it to my own. A glance through the ingredient list left no doubt that the pork would be flavorful. A glance at the directions raised a concern. I thought the specified roasting time would produce a dry roast. I was right on both counts. The roast is wonderfully flavorful. It's stuffed with a mixture of garlic and rosemary and basted with wine and olive oil as it cooks. The recipe calls for an hour and forty minutes of roasting. That's way too long for our taste. I pulled the roast from the oven when my meat thermometer read 140 degrees F. At that point the roast had been in the oven for a bit over 60 minutes. I tented it with foil and let it sit for another 15 minutes before slicing it. It was wonderful. There is one other change I'll make the next time I prepare this. The roast is cut, book fashion, almost in half to create a bed for the herb rub. In the future, I cut the roast into thirds to create a larger surface for the herbs. I used a dry French vermouth and a good olive oil for basting the roast. I served it with Parmesan mashed potatoes and roasted asparagus. If you like well flavored foods, I urge you to give this recipe a try. It's easy to do and inexpensive in the great scheme of things. Manga!

Arista - Tuscan Pork Roast...from the kitchen of One Perfect Bite

Ingredients:
2-1/2 pounds boneless pork roast
3 whole cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced
1 large branch fresh rosemary, about 1/2 cup
Kosher or sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper
Optional: sage, fennel seeds
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup white wine

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2) Remove rosemary leaves from branch an put on a cutting board. Top with garlic, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper. If you are using sage and fennel seeds they should be added now. Chop finely.
3) With a sharp knife, cut pork in almost in half lengthwise. Rub inside of roast with herb mixture. Close and tie with string. Rub outside of roast with any remaining herbs.
4) Place in oven for 10 minutes. Baste with wine and olive oil. Lower heat to 375 degrees F. Cook for 1-1/2 hours, basting frequently. Tent with foil and let sit for 15 minutes before slicing. Yield: 6 to 8 servings.

Tuscan Pork Loin

There's a lot of laughter in my kitchen right now. Bob and I have spent the last 30 minutes trying to get a picture of the black mushroom soup that I planned to share with you today. It's not happening folks. I could go into detail, but it's best - trust me - that we move on to the next course. Tuscan pork loin is a homely dish, but with a little lipstick this pig can delight your guests as well. It's really delicious; for best flavor it should sit tightly wrapped in its herb coating for at least 8 hours before roasting. Dried herbs work well here and dry vermouth can be used to make the sauce. If Julia Child could use vermouth as a stand-in for white wine, so can we. The good news is the vermouth keeps pretty much forever, so you can always have "white wine" at the ready. The roast needs no special handling, though to assure even cooking it's best to tie it into a cylinder. Once it's in the oven you're done. Enjoy!

Tuscan Pork Loin

Ingredients:
Pork Loin:
1 center cut boneless pok loin (2-1/2 to 3 pounds)
1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon olive oil, divided use
! teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 tablespoon crushed dried sage
1 tablespoon crushed dried rosemary
2 teaspoon crushed dried thyme
1 tablespoon coarse garlic salt
2 teaspoons coarsely cracked black pepper
1/4 cup dry white vermouth
1 cup reduced sodium chicken stock
1 tablespoon instant-blend flour (i.e. Wondra)

Directions:
1) Using kitchen twine, tie pork loin at 1-inch intervals to form a cylinder of uniform circumference.
2) Combine oil, lemon zest, sage, rosemary, thyme salt and pepper in a shallow baking dish. Roll pork loin in mixture. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 8 hours.
3) Preheat conventional oven to 325 degrees F. If using a convection oven preheat to 300 degrees F. Place a large (12-inch) cast iron skillet into oven to warm.
4) Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy ovenproof skillet over high heat until oil begins to shimmer. Add pork; sear well, about 5 minutes per side, using tongs to roll meat until all surfaces are brown. Transfer roast to hot pan already in oven. Roast for 35 minutes, or until pork reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F. Remove from oven. Tent with foil; let sit for 10 minutes before slicing.
5) While pork roasts, add 1/4 cup vermouth to pan in which pork was browned. Scrape to release fond from bottom of pan. Add broth. Stir in instant blending flour and whisk until a thin sauce forms. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Serve with Tuscan pork loin. Yield: 6 servings.

Roast Pork with Raspberry Balsamic Glaze

I try to keep my kitchen free of gadgets or appliances that are rarely used. My resistance to bread machines, rice cookers, juicers and ice cream makers is based on limited space as well as my penny-pinching ways. Occasionally, I relent. My portable convection oven is a case in point. It has a home in my kitchen because it's an energy miser and keeps meat exceptionally moist as it roasts. I buy long, single loin pork roasts from a warehouse store in my area. I cut each loin into thirds. One section is cut into chops or cutlets and the other two are left whole to freeze as roasts. Pork, purchased this way, is still a bargain. Today's recipe is easy to do, can be cooked in a convection or conventional oven and produces a roast worthy of company. I think you'll enjoy it.

Roast Pork with Raspberry Balsamic Glaze

Ingredients:
Raspberry Balsamic Glaze:
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons seedless raspberry preserves
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon Sriracha or crushed chipotle in adobo
1 clove crushed garlic
Zest and juice of 1/2 an orange
Pork Loin:
1 center cut boneless pok loin (2-1/2 to 3 pounds)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil, divided use
4 teaspoons coarse garlic salt
2 teaspoons coarsely cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons dried oregano

Directions:
1) Combine vinegar, raspberry preserves, mustard, Sriracha, garlic clove, orange zest and juice in a small microwavable bowl. Cook on HIGH power for 1 minute, or until preserves melt and sauce thickens.
2) Preheat convention oven to 325 degrees F. or preheat convection oven to 300 degrees F.
3) Using kitchen twine, tie pork loin at 1-inch intervals to form a cylinder of uniform circumference.
4) Combine garlic salt, pepper and oregano in a small bowl; toss to combine. Spread mixture on a work surface. Rub surface of meat with 1 teaspoon olive oil; roll in spice mixture.
5) Heat remaining 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large, heavy ovenproof skillet over high heat until oil begins to shimmer. Add pork; sear well, about 5 minutes per side, using tongs to roll meat until all surfaces are brown. Brush pork with glaze. Transfer skillet to oven and roast for 15 minutes. Brush again with glaze and roast for 20 minutes longer, or until pork reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees F. Remove from oven. Brush again with glaze. Tent with foil; let sit for 10 minutes before slicing. Yield: 6 servings.

Cooks Note: Meat cooked in a portable convection oven should be removed from skillet and placed directly on the oven rack. It should be turned half way through cooking.