Roasted Pork Loin w/ Sweet Potatoes and Drunken Figs

First off- I apologize for the picture quality. I am in the middle of moving and I seem to have misplaced my camera. These pictures were taken with my laptop's webcam. The pictures came out alright, but I can assure you the food turned out to be excellent.

Roasted Veg

-1 big vidalia onion, cut in half and then into half moon-shaped dices

-6 or so cloves of garlic, still in their natural wrapping

-2 medium sweet potatoes, diced into rounds

-Quite a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil

-Kosher salt, black pepper

Toss all the ingredients in a bowl until all of the vegetables are coated in oil and seasoning. Add them to the roasting pan with the pork loin after the meat broils. It's that simple.

Drunken Figs

-12 or so dried black mission figs, diced in half

-1/2-3/4 cup of good cognac or port (I used the rest of the Remy Martin left over from my Pork au Poivre)

-Good balsamic vinegar.

In a small saucepan, heat the cognac and figs on a stove to about medium heat. Let the figs simmer until the alcohol vapors are gone. Cover the saucepan, and let the figs steep for a while in the cognac until the pork is done. When you are ready to serve the pork, add the figs and the reduced cognac/vinegar mixtures straight in to the veg. It's that simple.

Roasted Pork Loin 

-1 bone-in pork loin, look for one with an ample layer of fat on the top and the rack of ribs underneath. Pick one that looks like it could feed your party

-Kosher salt, black pepper

-Garlic powder

-3 bay leaves (optional)

-Extra virgin olive oil

Lightly coat the bottom of a roasting pan with the olive oil, to make sure the meat doesn't stick to the pan. Salt the pork ALL over. I'm not kidding- this thing should be seasoned more than a pretzel when you're done. Crack some pepper and sprinkle garlic powder all around afterward. Make sure the fat side is UP. Tuck the bay leaves under the roast (they will flavor the drippings and provide a little aromatic to the meat). Set your oven to broil. Cook the meat by itself for about 5-6 minutes or until the entire roast appears white and opaque on the outside, and golden crispy on the top. 

This is what the meat looks like post-broil

Add the veg to the roasting pan and reduce the heat to about 400 degrees for another 3-4 minutes. You want to look for the fatty side to be a little bit brown and the veg to get just a little bit of caramelization. At this point, turn the oven down low- to about 285 degrees. Park the roast in there for about an hour.

After the first hour, pull the pan out, use a turkey baster or a big spoon to pour any oil and drippings over the meat. Once the first basting session is done- cover the pan with foil and put it back in the oven at that low temperature. Continue this every hour or so until you're ready to serve. My roast spent about 4 1/2 hours in the oven-total, and it probably weighed a little over 5lbs. When you are ready to serve the meat, add the figs and fig liquid into the vegetables and let the whole things rest for about 20-30mins in the oven with no heat on. Pour the wine, heat your plates briefly in the microwave, and set the table in the meantime. See below on how to cut the meat.

The Tasting:

The roast turned out pretty well. After letting the meat rest for 30mins in the oven with no heat on, I cut the meat off of the rack of bones. What I was left with were some individual chops with a little bit of that caramelized skin all around the top and then a fatty nub of meat at the end that was just delicious. I spooned the drippings all over the cut meat. The golden hues of the olive oil and rendered pork fat created a "broken" au jus against the dark drops of reduced cognac and balsamic vinegar. The pork was tender, but still held its shape- not like the fall off the bone baby food baby food style pork that you might get from a crock pot or from boiled carnitas (which are good at certain times). The only thing I would have changed would have been to salt it even more in the beginning- OR salt the pork roast the night before and let it sit in the fridge. That's the price I pay for being creative on a whim. 

The sweet potatoes were very soft and were complimented by the onions, which had lost most of their mass and gotten much sweeter. The figs were a little burst of sweetness, distinct (but not overwhelming) flavor from the cognac, and crunch from their seeds. 

The wine changed the way the flavors interacted in my mouth. The alcohol and tannins in the wine easily cleaned the fat and salt from the pork, while leaving a mild cherry flavor in my mouth. If I took a bit of the sweet potato or the figs, the wine would balance out the sugars. After I was done eating, a swallow of the wine would give an earthier flavor and a nice finish. 

The moral of this cooking story is simple: balance. I have never cooked this dish before, but I am familiar with the flavors. Part of this comes out of experience. I know what onions and garlic taste like after roasting in the oven for several hours. I know the texture and the residual sugar that will be left in a sweet potato after its been baked at a low temperature. I know that a pork loin with a nice blanket of fat on top will stay much more juicy in the oven than, for example, a pork tenderloin. Cooking is quite the nurturing activity- you want to make sure that the pork gets broiled enough in the oven so that the fat gets a little crispy- but not burnt. The saltiness of the pork must be balanced by the sweetness of the figs and vegetables. The little amount of vinegar in the drippings plus the alcohol in the wine cuts through the fat in the pork. If you can hone these intuitions and skills then you don't need cooking books and shows. Good ingredients and a little imagination become your inspiration.

What I'm drinking- Portada Tinto (2006)

Yesterday was a tasting day at my local wine proprietorship. I did what I usually do during a wine store tasting- sip on my glass while I walk around the shop looking for new wines to try out. I knew I was cooking pork, so I wanted a good dry red wine that wouldn't break the bank. I walked by the cases of Bleasdale that was featured in my last post, and was tempted to pick up another bottle of that very drinkable wine. However- I came across a case of this wine, and its interesting description scribbled on the cardboard box. I asked Bruce, the owner of the store, for his opinion and his review reaffirmed my interest. Tannins, big flavor, and made from the same groups as used in port, the fortified after-dinner wine for which PORT-ugal is so famous for. 

So I picked up a bottle for $8.99. Opened it up, poured the first glass, and let the open bottle and the poured glass breathe for about an hour. I was really impressed. A little bit of cherry and currant up front, with a lasting smooth finish. The tannins are certainly present, but they are mild enough so that you don't have to gulp some water after each sip of wine. 

Portuguese wines are unique in their own respects. They usually come dry, but not bone-dry like french wines. They usually have a little bit of fruit up front to help give the wine a little more complexity. If you dig Spanish wines, like rioja or grenache, do yourself a favor and head the the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula for something a little different. Ask for a good recommendation if you can, as I have had a couple, cheaper Portuguese wines that were dry in all the wrong ways. I would certainly try this wine again.

A Meal Inspired

Today's meal has an interesting story. I have been housesitting for some friends that are out of town. As payment for my services rendered, I get access to their wonderful vegetable and herb garden. I'm lucky that summer squash and zucchini have been sprouting like weeds to past few days, so I am utilizing a lot of those vegetables in my daily meals (more on this in a later post). For dinner, I planned on baking some bread, frying up some of these truly local veggies, and baking a whole fish or something (something I saw Wolfgang Puck do on the Travel Channel late light night). I put some garlic in the toaster oven to roast, and started mixing my bread ingredients for the auto-lyse period. While the bread was doing its thing, I headed out the door to get the ingredients for the rest of my meal.

My meal plans changed a little bit after hitting up my regular, bi-weekly (thats every other week, not twice a week) wine tasting. During the wine tasting, I browsed a few inexpensive whites to drink with the fish- a good, semi-dry Muscat blend from Spain, some oaked California Chardonnays, etc. Maybe it was because Bruce, my local wine store proprietor, was being a little generous on his pours or maybe it was because I prefer red wine to white wine in all cases, generally, but I ended up buying a great blend of red wine grapes from Australia. This bottle was the last wine featured in the wine tasting, and its taste and inexpensive price left the most lasting impression on me. So I snagged this bottle, and hit the closest Food Lion on the way home. I bought a two-pack of porterhouse steaks to pair with the wine. The two-pack was only $8 on reduction. As the picture shows- these steaks are not super thick. But what these steaks lack in thickness, they certainly make up in length-if you know what I mean. Anyway- the meal came together and turned out to be one of the most delicious creations I've made. 

The lynchpin(s) of this wonderful meal is certainly the inspiration ingredient. It inspiration began with the fresh rosemary, zucchini, and summer squash from the garden, the lasting finish of a good wine,  and a good price on a good steak. Now that you know the backstory, let's get on to the details.

A Feast Tied Together w/ a Sprig of Rosemary

Rosemary-Garlic Bread

• 2cups of flour (I used a 60/40 ratio of King Arthur Bread to All-Purpose Flours)
• 2 tablespoon of SAF yeast (This may be a little overkill, maybe 1.5tb is better)
• 2tbl of kosher salt
• 2tbl of sugar (To supplement my excessive yeast levels)
• 1c of warm water
• 2 sprigs of rosemary, stripped off the stem and diced
• 1 head of garlic, roasted (cut the top off of the bulb so that the cloves are exposed, cover it in extra virgin olive oil, wrap it in foil, and let that sucker fry in the oven at 400 degrees)
• Corn meal (optional- you can use AP flour for dusting)
• Extra virgin olive oil

• Spin all of the ingredients in a mixer, except the garlic and rosemary, until well blended. Let it all sit for about an hour. Cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap or a towel so it doesn't dry out. You should notice that the mixture will double or triple in size. 
  
• Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. If you have a pizza stone, use it now. If not, then use a cookie sheet on a rack.
• Gently scrape the mixture out onto a cutting board that is well-dusted with AP flour. Sprinkle the roasted garlic cloves and rosemary onto the dough.
• Knead the dough for about 2 minutes and try to incorporate the garlic and rosemary throughout the bread.
• If you have a pizza paddle, sprinkle it with AP flour or corn meal (as I used). Place the dough on the paddle and make sure it isn't sticking to the paddle. Brush or spread some extra virgin olive oil on the top of the dough to help it brown slowly. Otherwise, the top will be burnt and the inside with be raw.
• Place the dough on your pizza stone or cookie sheet. Let it bake for about 12-15 minutes or until the edges are golden brown.
• Serve it with some butter or a extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper for dipping.

Zucchini and Summer Squash w/ Rosemary

*Note- eyeball the amount of vegetables you'll need. For my big appetite, I used a fourth of a huge zucchini and a fourth of a squash

• summer squash, cut into fourths and then diced into medium chunks
• zucchini, cut the same as the squash
• extra virgin olive oil
• kosher salt, pepper
• red pepper flakes
• garlic powder
• lemon juice (optional- it adds a little brightness)

• Cook the veggies on medium-high for about 2 minutes. Meanwhile, season them with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and garlic power. 
• Turn the heat off after 2 minutes and cover the pan. The veggies will continue to cook for at least 5 minutes, or until the steaks are done, but they will still retain a little bit of crunch. 
• Squeeze a little lemon juice right before serving if you desire (I did). 

Rosemary-Rubbed Steaks

• Pick your favorite steak (I recommend a rib-eye, but I used a porterhouse because it was affordable)
• Kosher salt, pepper
• 2 sprigs of rosemary, stripped off the stem and diced fine

• Take the salt, pepper, and rosemary and grind them with the side of your knife or a mortar and pestle if you have a set. The rub should be mostly salt- you don't want the rosemary to completely dominate the steak. The salt and pepper act as an abrasive that will release the essential oils from the rosemary.
• If you like your steaks on the rare side, take them out of the fridge and let them sit out on the counter for at least 30mins before cooking. This ensures more even cooking.
• Use a cast iron pan if you have it- if not then use what you have. Whatever cooking vessel you use- turn it up the heat to high.
• Cover the steak with the rub. 
• Spray the pan with non-stick canola or vegetable spray. I prefer this to olive oil because the non stick spray does not burn quite as easily as olive oil.
• Cook the steak. I will not get into specific cooking times because stoves, steak thicknesses, pre-cooking temperatures- all vary. I usually just let my steaks cook 2-3 minutes on each side, just until you start seeing a little brown. I try not to overdo it because I hate a well-done steak, but that's me. 
• Let the steak "rest" on the plate for at least 2 minutes after cooking. This retains the natural juices in the meat, not on your plate. 

That was it- one of the most fantastic meals I've cooked...myself, if I may say so. But there's more!

What I am Drinking- Bleasdale, Langahore Crossing (2006) - $9-12

This Australian wine is a blend of cabernet (52%), malbec (27%), shiraz (15%), and petit verdot (6%). Those Aussies love their blend of old world and new world grapes and flavors. This red has a blackberry and slight spicy nose, and a cassis or currant taste on the tongue. The finish is dry, but quick. Not too many lasting tannins here. It really does a good job taming such a strong, woody herb like rosemary. Overall it is absolutely delicious, easy drinking, and very affordable.