A very dear friend of ours was in town over the holidays and to celebrate we christened my new kitchen with a delicious meal, lots of wine and very good company.
These dinners are something of a tradition, it all starts at the grocery store. My wife refuses to partake in this often excruciatingly slow, dithering and slightly painful experience. Hours are spent; we start with coffee, then we survey the produce, possibly look at the meat, then its back to the produce…. maybe we’ll have fish, or chicken, lets look at the meat again. … It takes a while, neither of us are decisive… The meal takes shape as we slowly choose each ingredient.
This time we tried out my new haunt, Bloor west. We started at the Bloor meat market, picked up a bone in pork loin (7 bones), then to a delicatessen to grab some cheese. I must say that Bloor west is oddly deprived of a good cheese shop. Finally we stopped by at my favorite veggie mart and grabbed, chesnuts (hankering) parsnips (they looked delicious), brussel sprouts, pears and some potatoes.
And this is how the meal came together.
We started with a chestnut and parsnip soup:
Score the chestnuts (10 to 15 of them) and roast until they are soft – 30 minutes. If you don’t score the chestnuts, wear goggles or a face mask because they will explode. This happened to me once when I took the chestnuts out of the oven. It hurt … a lot.
While the chestnuts are roasting,
peel and dice 3 large parsnips
dice one large onion,
peel and dice two potatoes,
crush and chop a couple of cloves of garlic,
and 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme.
Throw it all in a pot and saute for 5 minutes or so. Add 6 cups of stock and simmer. When the chestnuts are done, peel and chop and throw them into the pot.
Once everything is good and cooked, puree it with a stick blender and add a half cup or a cup of heavy cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
The Main
Pear and cider(strongbow) roast pork.
Trim pork roast, season with salt and pepper.
In a large roasting pan or a very large cast iron roasting pot, brown the pork roast on all sides (2 mintes per side). Remove the roast from the pan and add 1 cup of diced carrots, 1 medium diced onion a handful of diced shallots and a couple of cloves of garlic. Saute for 5-8 minutes or until the onions are clear.
While the veg is being sauteed core and slice 2 Bartlett pears. The slices should be about 1/8″ thick. They don’t have to be pretty as they will end up under a stick blender.
Reintroduce the pork and cover with veg and sliced pears. Add a half can of strongbow and fire it in the oven for about an hour and a half at 325-350. When the roast is cooked, take it out of the pan, tent with foil and let it rest while you tend to the gravy.
Note: I don’t believe in kitchen thermometers, when I say the roast is done, poke it with you finger. Don’t use a knife. Poke it, and poke it often. For me cooking has a lot to do with “feel” – something “feels done – the only way to really get to know that feeling is with practice, and mistakes. Many of you know about judging the “doneness” of a steak by poking it. It works, it just takes practice. The pork roast when poked should have some give, but still be elastic. It should be firm enough to spring back, but not so hard that it does not give under your poking.
Another Note: There is nothing wrong with medium, or slightly pink pork. Yes, there are some nasties that can live in pork, but if you cook it until it is hard and lifeless you might as well eat a shoe. If you notice that your pork roast is purging slightly pink clearish liquid as it rests you have succeeded.
For the Gravy: Transfer the contents of the roasting pan into a vessel that is good for blending. I use a tall cup that came with my stick blender. Puree it and add some heavy cream, a little Dijon and season to with salt and pepper.
Enough talk, here are the pictures.
As far as the sides go we had shredded Brussel sprouts and scalloped potatoes. I had no part in these so I will leave it up to the creator of these delicious sides to either post another entry, or update this one. I do have pictures.
For dessert we had a lovely strawberry short cake that I also cannot take credit for.
A nod to our West Coast guests for the excellent wine, and yes there was old mill and bourbon, these are also part of the tradition:
I know I was a little sparse on directions so if you need help, just ask.