You have a pork loin sitting in the fridge. Questions arise in you mind. What do I do with this? How Did it get here? Do I chop it into medallions? Do I grill it as is? Do I toss it in the slow cooker and make pulled BBQ pork (8 freaking hours later and only 1 until we actually want to eat)? WHAT DO I DO WITH THIS THING???
Check it out: Pork Roulade! Oh ya, nothing to it and satisfyingly tasty!
Pork is one of those tough meats to cook because it has a tendency to come out as dry as the Sahara. And if I know my environmental studies, that's pretty freaking dry! Hense the reason I never really liked it growning up except for in tamales or pasole (I've never met a breaded chop that I could cozy up to).
So lets back up a second here. Let me start with the crusty Italian garlic bread I made to accompany the dinner. For all my ambitions and risky taking, I have never been much of a baker. The best thing in the world I think is a good crusty bread with olive oil or real butter. All I can hope for is that with time and practice I get better with baking bread. What traspired was less than foodie inspiring with this loaf. Instead of all purpose flour, or bread flour for that matter, I went and used all whole wheat flour. Perhaps this is why it didn't exactly turn doughy as opposed to a tight, heavy ball of flour. It didn't really rise a whole lot, and it baked up into a dry and dense, and pretty heavy ball (I thought my fiance, Julie, was going to dent the cooling rack when she dropped this sucker), but hey, it's the thought that counts....right?
Here is the original recipe. I highly recommed sticking to.
The Goods
•3 cups unbleached white bread flour (I used King Arthur)
•2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
•1 teaspoon garlic powder
•1/2 teaspoon instant or other active dry yeast
•1 cup cool (55 to 65 degrees) water
•1/3 cup olive oil or herb variety
•Cornmeal or additional flour for dusting
The Work
1.In a medium bowl, stir together the flours, salt, garlic powder, and yeast. Make an impression in the middle of the dry ingredients, almost like a little bowl.
2.Pour the water and olive oil into the impression you just made. Using a wooden spoon or your hands, mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, adding a bit more water if necessary.
3.Cover the bowl with lightly oiled plastic wrap and let it sit at room temperature until the surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough is more than doubled in size, 18 to 24 hours.
4.When the first rise is complete, generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a bowl scraper or rubber spatula to scrape the dough out of the bowl in one piece.
5.Using lightly floured hands or a bowl scraper or spatula, lift the edges of the dough in toward the center. Tuck the edges of the dough under to make it round.
6.Dust a cookie sheet with cornmeal. Gently place the dough on the cookie sheet, seam side down.
7.Dust the top lightly with cornmeal. Place another lightly oiled piece of plastic wrap over the loaf-in-progress. Then let rest in a warm, draft-free spot for just about 2 hours.
8.Position one of your oven racks so that your dutch oven will be centered in the oven, and preheat it to 475 degrees F.
9.Place a covered 4-1/2 to 5-1/2 quart cast-iron dutch oven in the center of the rack. Let fully preheat.
10.Carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven and uncover it. Gently invert the dough into the pot, seam side up. Cover the pot and bake for 30 minutes.
11.Remove the lid and continue baking until the loaf is a deep chestnut color -- but not burned -- 15 to 30 minutes. Use a heatproof spatula to carefully lift the loaf out of the pot and place it on a rack to cool thoroughly before slicing.
Ok, so that wasn't so bad. Let's move on to the mail topic of this posting, the pork roulade. A roulade is basically a meat that has been butterlyed, cut, or pounded to lay flat. Once this is done, a stuffing or filling is spread over the meat and it is rolled up like a pin-wheel, butcher tied, and then cooked.
So here is what I chose to do with that fickle pork loin:
What you need:
-1 pork tender loin
-3 slices whole grain bread of your choice
-1/2 cup dried cranberries
-1/2 sweet onion
-1/2 cup walnuts
-spices that tickle your fancy. In this case I used a grinder of Italian seasoning I had on hand
-2 cloves garlic, crushed and minced.
-1/4 cup chicken broth
-4 Tbs. Olive Oil
-1-2 tsp. cornstarch
-1/4 cup water
-1/2 cup wine or water for degalsing (1/4 cup) and the cornstach thickener (1/4)
-Salt and pepper to taste (for stuffing and for pan sauce)
The Action Steps
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees (F)
-Start by pulsing the 3 slices of bread in a food processor to make fresh bread crumbs.
-Head 2 Tbs. olive oil in a medium size saute pan over medium heat
-Dice the onion and place it in the pan to saute and soften. Do not let the onion become too colored.
-Add in the dried cranberries, and walnuts. Allow the mixture to heat through.
-Once heated, toss in the minced garlic and saute just until the garlic is fregrant (15 seconds).
-When the garlic becomes fregrant, add the bread crumbs and the chicken broth. You don't want the stuffing too wet, so use more or less water depending on the consistancy. The water will also evaporate as the cooking goes on. At this time add in the seasoning.
The great thing about the stuffing is that it can be made of anything you want. Mushrooms, proscuitto, nuts and berries, etc.
While the stuffing is cooiking a little longer, buterfly the pork tender loin to lay flat.
-Start by making a shallow cut in the tender loin on top.
-Work the knife to the side and begin to "un-roll" the pork loin
-Proceed with the cutting so your tender loin is roughly 1/4" thick (You can also then put it between two sheets of cling wrap and pound it with the bottom of another pan to flatten it more.
Once the stuffing has cooked a little, allow it to cool down a little so it is easier to handle as you roll the meat.
-Spread the stuffing over the flattened pork loin evenly.
-Gently roll the meat up like a news paper or carpet, attempting to keep as much filling in it as possible. It helps to not put as much filling at the edges so it doesn't come spilling out.
-Gently tie the pork loin up with kitch twine. You can do this using the butchers tie method, or simply tie it up like you would a regluar piece of string and knot every 1"-1 1/12" down the length of the tender loin.
-In a large pot or dutch over, heat the remaining oil until it beging to start lightly smoking (Over meaium high heat). Quickly brown the tender loin on all sides.
Note** Browning meat produces a crust on the outter side of the meat you are cooking. Rumor is that this helps to seal in the juices. Wrong! Browning is mearly done because many people like the carmelized juicy flavor it produces
-Once you have browned the meat, place the tender loin, with the lid on, into the preheated oven for 30-40 minutes or until you touch the meat and it feels firmer. This all depends on how you like your meat cooked.
-When the meat is done cooking, remove it from the dutch oven and allow it to rest for 7-10 minutes on a cutting bored. Always rest your meat or the beautiful juices will just run out of it.
-Meanwhile, turn the heat back on to medium and deglase the dutch oven with water or wine to remove all those stuck little bits of meat. You can also damp out a little of the fat that may have come off the pork loin.
-Mix 1-2 tsp. cornstarch with 1/4 cup water or wine and whisk together.
-Add the cornstarch mixture and allow the sauce to thicken, gradually reducing the heat. I decided to toss in some sliced onion for flavor and fun, which softened in the sauce.
There you have it folks, a pretty easy meal, served with that home made rock bread (I hope yours turns out lighter) and green beans this evening. You can accompany it with a salad, mixed vegtetables, etc.
I would recommend accompanying this also with a bottle of medium red Chianti (Italy), Malbec (Argentina) (I am a recent fan of these wines), Nero d'Avola (Italy), or whatever else you like to drink.
Thanks for reading and keep on eating.
-Chris
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