Rosemary Garlic Roasted Pork Loin with Puy Lentils and Braised Red Cabbage

AKA: Possibly the most delicious meal I have ever cooked.

There. I've said it. I think that Saturday's meal was right up there. I don't know why it turned out so amazingly well - was is the pork itself? The creamy, dreamy gravy/pan sauce? The meltingly tender red cabbage with a kick of vinegar? The earthy lentils that Emmett ate 3 servings of? I dunno, but it was pretty darn good. Sorry, no humility here.

It was a bit involved but soooooo worth it. Reckon on it taking about 2 hours (though you can leave it alone for most of this time).


For the Pork Roast:
Preheat your oven to 450F

• 2kg pork loin roast. In Canada they don't sell it with the skin on. If you're lucky enough to live somewhere where they do, score the skin, rub it with oil and salt and it will turn in to a great crackling (if it's a bit flabby at the end of the cooking, re-crank the oven to 450F for about 10 mins to crackle it up)
• 4-6 cloves of garlic. I used 2 ginormo hardneck ones.
• 1 large sprig fresh Rosemary
• Salt and Pepper
• Zest of a lemon
• 1-2 cups crimini/portabellini mushrooms (the brown ones)

Take your garlic, chopped rosemary and zest and put it in a mortar and pestle and pound it. 

I don't know why I took a photo of it. Maybe it's because I love my huge mortar and pestle sooo much.

Now stick it in a bowl,add a good grind of pepper, quite a bit of salt and drizzle some olive oil in there to make a nice paste-y mess. Put a bit more oil in the bottom of a dish (you want it to fit the roast fairly well) and plonk your roast in there. Now rub that garlicky goodness all over it. If there are any cracks and crevices, make sure you fill those babies up. Then put it in the oven.

After 30 mins, turn the oven down to 350F. After another 30 mins - 1 hour total cooking time so far - chop up some mushrooms and put them in the dish around the roast. Around this time, start thinking about he lentils and cabbage. If it's dry on the bottom of the dish (probably won't be) add a cup of water. Once the roast has cooked for about 1.75 hrs, start taking its temperature. You want the internal reading to be 70 degrees Celsius. Mine took just over 2 hrs. Once it reaches that, take it out of the oven, tent it with foil and let it rest while you prepare the pan sauce.

The Pan Sauce
Once the meat is cooked, there will be some lovely liquid/mushrooms in the bottom of the dish. If your dish is metal, put it right on the burner for this next part. If it's not (mine wasn't), then scrape all the juices and the yummy brown-y bits into a frying pan. Now add a glug of booze. I used red wine. Marsala would have been my first choice. Anything will be fine. If you're using the metal pan, you'll then scrape the really caramel bits of the bottom of the dish (deglazing the pan). Now stick your  finger in there and taste the juices and assess what it needs. Mine tasted amazing and didn't need anything. Yours probably won't either because of the rub. Now put in about 1 cup of whipping/heavy cream and bring to the boil. You'll boil it a bit to reduce it/thicken it. That's it. Done.

The Lentils

• 1 cup Puy Lentils. These are the iny dark green lentils, not the regular green lentils. These don't fall apart when you cook them. They are sometimes called French Lentils.
• Chicken Stock - I used a tetra pack of organic stuff. Real homemade stock would be even better.
• an onion, chopped
• 2 diced carrots
• Worcestershire Sauce

Fry your onion and carrots in some olive oil until they start to soften. Add your lentils and about 2 cups of the stock. Season with salt and pepper, bearing in mind that commercial stock is quite salty. Bring to the boil and then simmer until the lentils are tender. If it looks too dry, add more liquid, but the aim to to get the lentils to absorb most of the stock. At some point (doesn't matter) shake in some Worcestershire Sauce. If you did add too much liquid, you can drain the lentils (that stock can be added to the pan sauce in moderation). But if you don't add enough you'll burn your lentils. Once they are cooked, you can put them aside and easily reheat them.

Braised Red Cabbage

This dish is a family fave of Peter's. It's a German-y kinda thang. I can't tell you how many times I ate this kind of dish in Germany. It was usually totally oversalted, so don't be too authentic!!

• 1/2 a red cabbage, shredded as finely as possible. I'm bad at this, so mine isn't very fine - it just takes longer to cook
• Red Wine Vinegar
• Caraway Seeds

Put the cabbage, 1/2 cup water and a good glug of vinegar in a pot with some salt and pepper. Bring it to a simmer and put a lid on it. Check periodically to make sure there is still some liquid in the pan. Taste the cabbage as you go to see what the vinegar balance is like. You want it a bit tangy but not like pickles! When you're almost done, add about 1 tsp of caraway seeds. The cabbage should be uber-tender and lightly tangy. Oh, and bright purple.

Serving the beast

OK. I know that was long. But it's not hard in reality.

On each plate, put a pile of lentils and then some red cabbage. Carve off a few slices of meat and arrange artistically on the top and then put a generous amount of the pan sauce and mushrooms on and around it.

This is the kind of dish that could woo a Mother-in-Law. Try it.

A Basic Braise

What could be more comforting than a stew in a cold winter’s day? It’s really the ultimate comfort food, though the name sounds very un-cool. Perhaps the term “braise” would be better?

Anyway, I wanted to show how to make a basic stew braise that you can modify infinitely. Here I have used oxtail, which to some would be gross, but don’t knock it until you try it. Certain parties in this house were totally grossed out until they actually tried it and then proclaimed it the “best stew ever” and now gets excited when he sees a big, gross oxtail at the farmer’s market. The flavour is incomparable because of the bones and the gelatine in the tail. A close second would be Osso Bucco (beef or veal shin, cut in cross section) or short ribs. You could also use precubed stewing beef, pork, lamb...whatever.

What you'll need:

• Some stewing meat - I used 2 big oxtails, you could sub 4-5 lbs of stewing beef
• Carrots
• Celery
• Onion
• Garlic
• Cooking liquid - canned tomatoes, wine, stock, water if desperate
• Seasonings and herbs
  

Start with some onion, chopped (see this post for how I do it). I’ve used one large one.

And some carrot. Here are 4 smallish ones

And some celery. I buy the hearts and just chop them right up without separating the sticks. I used about 6 sticks here.

I heat a good glug of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in my dutch oven and add the onion, carrots, and celery. Cook them for about 3 mins. This is a lot shorter than most would recommend. You’ll see why in a minute.

Now, here is where you start making some decisions. I don’t thicken my stews because I am trying to avoid flours (of all types) so I don’t toss my meat in flour. Most people do, and I would too if I could. To do this, you would put about 1/2 a cup of flour in a large ziplock, along with about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a teaspoon of pepper. Then you bung your meat in and give it a shake. Then take the meat out, discarding excess flour.

Add your meat to the pot. I’ve used 2 large oxtails here, cut into sections (it often comes this way, otherwise it is normally partially cut for you). You could also use a different stewing meat – probably about 4-5 pounds. If you are doing a larger or smaller batch, just adjust the amount of veg.

Most recipes will tell you to remove your veg from the pot before browning your meat. I am way too lazy to do this, which is why I don’t cook my veggies very long. I just toss my meat in on top and keep stirring it.

This is a rather bad shot of how much your meat will be browned.

While you’re browning the meat, chop of lots of garlic. There are 6 cloves here. Rough is fine. Add it to the pot along with some liquid.

Again, you have some choices. Here are some suggestions for liquid:

• Canned tomatoes
• Wine, marsala, port or vermouth (no more than a cup or so)
• Stock/Boullion – homemade, bought, cubes etc
• Water if desperate. This will only work if you are using meat which has bones. It will essentially be creating its own stock.

I’ve also added good grind of pepper and about 2 teaspoons of salt. I was using homemade stock and unsalted tomatoes. If you were using bought stock, you’d decrease the amount of salt. You can see how much liquid is necessary. You want it to almost cover your meat.

Now you can add other flavourings to give some personality to your dish. Some suggestions:

• the zest of half an orange or lemon (use a potato peeler so you can remove it easily)
• Herbs, fresh or dried – Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, Savory. A tablespoon of dried or a generous sprig of fresh.
• A couple of bay leaves
• 3-4 juniper berries

In this one I used some orange zest, rosemary and 2 bay leaves.

Now put the lid on and put the pot on low for a long time. Reckon on about 3-4 hours. You don’t want it to be boiling hard, just a gentle simmer (if you open the lid, most of the surface should be flat with a few parts gently bubbling). The stew is ready when the meat is falling off the bone or is very tender. If the liquid gets low, just add some more. It doesn’t hurt to stir it from time to time, especially if you floured your meat.

I usually add extra veggies to this. This timing on when you add them will depend on the vegetable. Again, some suggestions:

• Root veg – Potatoes, Rutabaga, Turnip, Celeriac. Cut into 1 inch cubes. Add when you add the liquid
• Mushrooms. Slice or leave whole and add with the liquid.
• Cauliflower, Green/Wax Beans and Broccoli. Cut into florets and add when the meat is tender but not falling off the bone.
• Frozen peas, corn, edamame. I toss these in, frozen, about 5 mins before serving.

This particular time, I was extremely short of veg, so there aren’t any extras.

Here is the Oxtail Stew on a bed of polenta. If you dredged your meat in flour, your gravy would be thicker. I know this looks like a huge serving, but it’s a LOT of bone, believe me.