Irish Roast Pork with Potato Stuffing

Irish roast pork with potato stuffing on Flickr by beFOODled.

Peanut Butter and Jelly brought this very tasty Irish roast pork with potato stuffing to the Gastronati's Irish night. The recipe is from this website. As with all their dishes, they gave it a nice presentation, this time with apple slices.

PB and J made the following changes: They used shallots as well as white onion, and precooked them with the apples, herbs and butter in a frying pan before adding them to potatoes. They also added a tablespoon of cream cheese to the stuffing, and a little bit of bacon to both the stuffing and the outside of the roast. Lastly, they added more beer than the recipe calls for braising the meat.

Braised pork loin with vegetables and mashed potatoes

Braised pork loin with mashed potatoes and vegetables by beFOODled on Flickr.

For our main plate on New Year's Day in Calgary, Mark, S and I served braised pork loin medallions topped with caramelized onions. We served them with mashed potatoes, sautéed Asian-glazed carrots, pan-seared bok choy and baked Provençale tomato.

Mark told us that the classic onion-carrot-celery flavour base used in braising is called mirepoix by the French. He also advised that tender cuts of meat, such as this loin, do not have to be fully submerged in liquid when braised. But more sinewy cuts, such as shoulder or hock, taste more tender if submerged.

Braised pork loin
serves six

enough pork loin to serve six
1/2 bottle red wine
parsley sprigs
bay leaf
whole garlic cloves
onions, carrots and celery in a large dice (mirepoix)
dried thyme


Marinate the pork loin by beFOODled on Flickr.

Marinate the pork loin in the above ingredients for a few hours.


Season the pork and reserve the marinade by beFOODled on Flickr.

Brush the elements of the marinade off the meat and season the pork loin on all sides. Set the marinade aside.

Brown the pork loin on all sides in a hot pan with hot oil. Set aside.


Sauté the garnishes in the marinade by beFOODled on Flickr.

With tongs or a slotted spoon, remove all of the whole vegetables, herbs and seasonings from the marinade. And keep that wine for later (for the love of Bacchus, don't throw it out!) Sauté the elements of the marinade for a few minutes in the same frying pan.

In a cast iron Dutch oven, add a layer of the sautéed veggies and then add the meat on top. Add the rest of the cooked veggies on top of the meat. Add some tomato paste and the wine from the marinade (about two cups). Add about two more cups of chicken or vegetable stock, or as much as you need.


Braised pork loin in a Dutch oven by beFOODled on Flickr.

Cook for two-and-a-half hours at 300 to 325 degrees. Let the meat rest for 10 minutes under foil before cutting into medallions.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

Ribfest inspired me to make my own pulled pork, so I tested out this recipe on my friends earlier this week. I did give them fair warning that I was going to serve them butt, which the butcher gave me instead of pork shoulder. (I didn't notice until it was too late.) But they are wonderful, they still came over :) We like big butts and we cannot lie, you other brothers can't deny ...

I followed the advice of the cookbook, which says to use whole spices when slow cooking — they stand up to the long cooking times better than ground spices. Also, because you can't brown the meat first (can't brown big butts), set your cooker to high for the first couple of hours of cooking time, and then turn it to low. One thing the cookbook forgot to mention is that you should close your bedroom door, because the whole apartment will smell of barbecue!

But it's worth it ...

Old South Pulled Pork on a Bun
recipe adapted from The 150 Best Slow Cooker Recipes by Judith Finlayson
serves eight

1.2 kg pork butt (or shoulder), trimmed of excess fat
2 onions, finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cracked black peppercorns
1 cup of your favourite barbecue sauce
1/4 cup packed dark-brown sugar
1/4 cup raspberry vinegar (or cider)
1 tsp liquid smoke
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce

The night before your dinner, make the sauce. Finely dice the onions and fry in a pan with olive oil for a few minutes until they are beginning to soften. Add the garlic and fry another minute. Add the paprika and the peppercorns and stir. Add the barbecue sauce, brown sugar, liquid smoke, vinegar and Worcestershire and stir, bringing to the boil. Turn the heat off, cool and store in the fridge overnight.

The morning of your dinner, place the pork in the slow cooker and pour over the sauce. Cook for an hour or two, or however long you can, on high and then turn the cooker to low before you go to work. I let mine cook for one hour on high and 10 hours on low. You could cook it on high for six hours instead. The pork should be falling apart.

Transfer the pork to a big glass bowl, leaving the sauce in the cooker. Pull the pork apart using two forks, and discard any fatty bits you find. Put the pulled pork back in the cooker and turn to coat evenly with sauce.

Spoon onto big, fluffy white buns, like onion buns or kaisers. My anaconda don't want none unless you've got buns hun ...

Katsudon

Katsudon by beFOODled.

Earlier this week I made katsudon, a Japanese meal that is a rice bowl topped with a breaded pork cutlet (tonkatsu) and a soy sauce, egg and spring onion omelette-like topping. I used this about.com recipe for the tonkatsu, and Chubby Hubby's recipe for the onion and egg topping.