Roasted Pork Loin, Applesauce, and Mashed Potatoes

Last weekend I got a pork loin roast from Babes in the Wood, and cooked it on Tuesday, along with some applesauce and mashed potatoes. In case you haven't noticed, I am a huge supporter of raising animals in a sustainable way and feeding them what they want to eat naturally. This forest-fed pork is hands down the best pork that I've ever had. See my post on North Carolina Barbecue for more about that.

Ingredients:

• Pork Roast
• 1.6 lb boneless pork loin roast
• Dry Rub
• Kosher salt
• Raw cane sugar (or brown sugar)
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Garlic Salt
• Black Pepper
• Celery Salt
• Paprika
• Applesauce
• Honey Crisp Apples (peeled and roughly cut)
• Cinnamon
• Cloves
• Sugar
• Mashed Potatoes
• 2 lb bag of Red Potatoes
• Garlic
• 1/2 Roasted Red Pepper
• Olive Oil
• Butter
• Milk
• Rosemary
• Kosher Salt
• Black Pepper 
• Paprika
• Garlic Salt

Procedure:

• Pork:  I started the pork by defrosting it in a sealed bag in hot water (I like that or fridge defrosting more than microwave), while I mixed up the rub.  Rubs generally have about half and half salt and sugar plus whatever seasonings you want - I used cumin, and cloves because they are my favorite pork seasonings. I also only use kosher salt or sea salt for rubs - they are much more subtle and taste better than table salt, and treat the meat better. I cut the fat layer mostly off the meat to make a pocket to add the rub. I rubbed the rub into every surface of the roast.  This was placed on the bottom rack over a pan and baked at 350 for about 1.5 hours.
• Applesauce:  Homemade applesauce is really, really easy. I just cut up some apples, put them in a pan with a splash of cider and some cinnamon, cloves, and sugar. That was baked for about 30 minutes at 350, then ran through a food processor. 
• Mashed Potatoes:  I boiled red potatoes with some rosemary and seasonings. I roasted garlic in olive oil and paprika at the same time the apples and roast were baking, for about 30 minutes. The potatoes, garlic, half a roasted red pepper I had leftover, butter, milk, salt, and pepper went into a food processor (in two batches).  
  

Resulting Deliciousness:

    The pork turned out pretty well. I prepared it in a more barbecue-ey way than a roast-ey way, but that's the mood I was in. I overcooked it a bit, so it was a tad tough, but wasn't dried out. The taste was great, but the rub was just a tad strong - any pork but the flavorful forest-fed stuff would have been overwhelmed by the cumin. Next time I would either cook it less, or cook it low and slow, and would have brined it if I had time. But, still really good. 

    The mashed potatoes were really, really creamy from the butter, milk, olive oil from the roasted garlic, and the use of a food processor instead of hand-mashing. They were really good, but unfortunately had a slight fridge taste to them from the week or two old roasted red pepper I put in. I have learned that it probably isn't good to throw a roasted pepper in a bag in the fridge - next time I have some leftover, I'll add some olive oil or vinegar to help hold the flavor.

    The applesauce was also a little below my standards. Last time I did this, I roasted them for over an hour and they were awesome, almost like apple butter, but not so sweet and heavy. This time, I didn't roast it as long, so I expected a lighter flavor, which was fine. The problem was the texture - the apples had gone through at least a couple improper freeze/thaw cycles. I could tell when I bought them that they had been through that kind of abuse, I was just too excited to see honey crisp apples in January and figured they would be fine for applesauce. It might have been better if I cooked them more, but in addition to the good applesauce texture, there was a grainy texture that was a bit of a put-off. Oh well, still good if not perfect.

    So, overall it was a nice meal, but there were some little things that kept it from being great.

Sweet Rolls Round 2

Last week, my mom tried her old sweet rolls again after talking to me about all the recommendations we got from the last try. In the interest of only changing one thing to see the impact, we decided to fix the worst of our mistakes - trying to get GF dough to rise multiple times. The result was borderline perfect!

From Sweet Rolls

Ingredients:

• Sweet Dough
• 1.5 cups milk warmed to ~120
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 packets yeast
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 7.5 cups flour (we used Jules Shepard's All Purpose Flour from Nearly Normal)
• Filling
  
• ~ 1 stick melted Butter
  
• ~ 1 cup Sugar
  
• ~ 2 tbsp Cinnamon
  
• Glaze
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 5 tbsp white karo corn syrup

Procedure:

So, this time the recipe stayed the same, but the rising steps were taken out.  

To make the dough, start by mixing the yeast with half a cup of warm water. While that sits, mix together the warm milk, sugar, and salt. When the yeast has bubbled, add it to the warm milk mixture and stir. To that, add 2 lightly beaten eggs and half a cup of shortening. Mix about half the flour. Once that is mixed in, add the rest of the flour - you can use a little more or less, just add it until the dough feels like dough.

For the glaze, just mix together the brown sugar, butter, and karo syrup. Grease 3 or 4 8" baking pans and line the bottom of the pans with the glaze mix. If you want, you can add chopped up walnuts or pecans on the glaze (we used pecans).

Mix together the cinnamon and sugar (the ratio listed is an estimate, just use as much cinnamon as you like) and melt some butter. Then, separate out a baseball-softball sized chunk of dough and roll it out into a rectangle about 3-4 inches wide. Drizzle on some butter to lightly coat the dough, then sprinkle on a thin layer of the cinnamon and sugar mix. Roll up the dough and cut it into pieces about an inch and a half long. Place the pieces cut side up/down in the prepared pan (see below), with room between the rolls for them to rise.  Place the populated pans in a warm oven for about 45 minutes to rise.  Remove the rolls, get the oven up to temperature for baking.

Bake the rolls at 370 for 25-30 minutes. After baking, set a plate on top of the pan of rolls, then flip it over. Let it sit for a minute to let the glaze drizzle down, the remove the pan. There you are - a beautiful pan of glazed sweet rolls! They get stale quickly, so make sure to cover them soon after they cool.

Resulting Deliciousness:

This time, the rolls were almost perfect. They were still a tad on the heavy side, but barely. The taste was pretty much right on, just a little less 'doughy', or maybe yeast-y?, than I remember them being when I was a kid.  Maybe next time we will try some of the other suggestions to see if we can get just a little more rise.

Thanks again to everyone for all the comments! 

Chili

I haven't made chili in a really long time.  Last weekend, my friend James made some and inspired me to do the same.  I think it turned out quite well.

Ingredients:

• Ground beef (90/10 lean)
• Ground turkey
• Celery root
• Celery
• Onion
• Roasted red pepper
• Apple cider
• Peas (1 can)
• Corn (1 can)
• Black beans (1 can)
• Pinto beans (1 can)
• Kidney beans (1 can)
• Garbanzo beans (1 can)
• Tomato sauce (2 cans)
• Thyme
• Rosemary
• Sage
• Bay leaf
• Kosher salt
• Raw cane sugar
• Honey
• Black pepper
• Red pepper
• White pepper
• Chili powder
• Garlic salt
• Garlic
• Cumin
• Cloves
• Dry mustard
• Paprika

Procedure:

Chili is one of the easiest things to make.  All I did was cut up the ingredients that weren't canned, caramelized the onions and celery, browned the ground beef and turkey, put everything in a big pot, and let it simmer for about 2.5 hours.  I tasted it from time to time and seasoned it to my taste.  I went heavy on cumin because it suited my palate and my mood.  

Resulting Deliciousness:

This was fantastic chili.  One key thing that some people don't think of is the sugar.  Sugar helps balance the spices and salt and really gets all the flavors to blend together smoothly.  I didn't make this chili very spicy because I didn't feel like spicy food tonight.  Chili, and stews in general, always taste better after sitting around for a while.  I'm really looking forward to eating this for lunch for the rest of the week!

Gluten Free Sweet Rolls

This was my family's favorite desert when I was growing up, we were always bugging my mom to make them. Since I was diagnosed with Celiac Disease about seven years ago, we've tried to re-make sweet rolls a couple times, but nothing ever came close. This time, we nailed the taste. If the rolls would rise a little more and be a little softer, they would be perfect. If you have any advice on that, please let me know in the comments!

Ingredients:

• Sweet Dough
• 1.5 cups milk warmed to ~120
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 packets yeast
• 2 eggs (lightly beaten)
• 1/2 cup shortening
• 7.5 cups flour (we used Jules Shepard's All Purpose Flour from Nearly Normal)
• Filling
  
• ~ 1 stick melted Butter
  
• ~ 1 cup Sugar
  
• ~ 2 tbsp Cinnamon
  
• Glaze
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup butter
• 5 tbsp white karo corn syrup

Procedure:

I'll tell you the original recipe, with notes about how it was different with GF flour... To make the dough, start by mixing the yeast with half a cup of warm water. While that sits, mix together the warm milk, sugar, and salt. When the yeast has bubbled, add it to the warm milk mixture and stir. To that, add 2 lightly beaten eggs and half a cup of shortening. Mix about half the flour. Once that is mixed in, add the rest of the flour - you can use a little more or less, just add it until the dough feels like dough. Knead the dough (although I don't think that is necessary for GF flours?). Place the dough in a large greased bowl, cover it with a damp towel, and let it sit in a warm place to rise until it doubles in size, about 2 hours (it did not double with GF flour, but did rise significantly). Punch the dough down, flip it over in the bowl, re-cover it, and let it rise a second time. Once risen, punch it down a final time and let it sit for 15 minutes. Mix together the cinnamon and sugar (the ratio listed is an estimate, just use as much cinnamon as you like) and melt some butter. Then, separate out a baseball-softball sized chunk of dough and roll it out into a rectangle about 3-4 inches wide. Drizzle on some butter to lightly coat the dough, then sprinkle on a thin layer of the cinnamon and sugar mix. Roll up the dough and cut it into pieces about an inch and a half long. Place the pieces cut side up/down in the prepared pan (see below), with room between the rolls for them to rise (the GF rolls didn't rise much, so we placed them closer together than you would for wheat flour rolls).

While the dough is rising, you can prepare the baking pans and make the glaze. For the glaze, just mix together the brown sugar, butter, and karo syrup. Grease 3 or 4 8" baking pans and line the bottom of the pans with the glaze mix. If you want, you can add chopped up walnuts or pecans on the glaze (we used pecans).

Bake the rolls at 370 for 15-20 minutes (they took about 27 with the GF flour - anyone know why that would be?). After baking, set a plate on top of the pan of rolls, then flip it over. Let it sit for a minute to let the glaze drizzle down, the remove the pan. There you are - a beautiful pan of glazed sweet rolls! They get stale quickly, so make sure to cover them soon after they cool.

Resulting Deliciousness:

These rolls were the closest to the real thing that we've ever gotten using GF flour - Jules' mix definitely works well, I highly recommend it. The taste was exactly what I remember. The only shortcoming was the texture - these did not rise as well as the flour ones, so they were a little more dense and harder. However, they were very worth the effort. If anyone can give me some tips on how to tweak the recipe to get them to rise better, please let me know in a comment!

Local Grass-Fed Applewood Smoked Beef

Many people are intimidated by slow cooking techniques like smoking.  In reality, it is one of the oldest, simplest, easiest, tastiest ways to prepare food.  Low temperature slow cooking is very forgiving.  While you'll want a smoker to really do it right, you can improvise quite well with a grill (see my North Carolina Pulled Pork Barbecue!).  This was the first thing we made with my dad's new smoker.  

The meat we smoked was very special, although it shouldn't be.  We used extremely fresh, locally raised grass-fed beef, which was absolutely beautiful.  As I've mentioned in earlier posts, I am a huge supporter of feeding animals the foods they evolved to eat.  No cow can properly digest corn.  A happy cow is out in a field eating a variety of different grasses.  A grass-fed cow's meat is leaner and far superior in taste to any feedlot meat.  Because the meat is more lean, low and slow techniques are helpful because it can be easy to overcook lean meat on a grill if you're used to fatty grain-fed beef (less fat means less juices).  Low and slow also helps make the meat even more tender.  If the environmental, health, and moral shortcomings of feedlot meat won't convince you to go for more expensive grass-fed meat, maybe the taste and texture benefits will.  And that isn't limited to cows - in my opinion, the taste benefit of a free-range life and natural diet is even greater for chicken and pork than it is for beef (check out forestfed.com, makes other pork taste like uncooked tofu).  Anyway, here is what we did:

Ingredients:

• Sirloin Roast
• Short Ribs
• Kielbasa
• Dale's
• Rub
• Sea Salt
• Brown Sugar
• Paprika
• Black Pepper
  
• Garlic Salt
• Dry Mustard
• Celery Salt
• Red Pepper
• White Pepper
• Cumin
• Thyme
• Onion Powder
• Cloves
• Zucchini
  
• Yellow Squash
• Potatoes
• Barbecue Sauce
• Ketchup
• Dry Mustard
• Tabasco 
• White pepper
• Red pepper
• Black pepper
• Oregano
• Garlic Salt
• Paprika
• Red wine

Procedure:

My dad and I started this meal by marinating the beef.  I used some Dale's, one of the very few pre-packaged marinades I use.  While the meat marinated for about an hour, we got the fire in the smoker going with some charcoal and scraps of oak, and cut some green branches off our apple tree (you can also buy wood to smoke).  While the fire burned down, I mixed up the rub - about half and half sugar and salt, plus whatever seasonings you have around, to your taste.  After marinating for an hour, I took the beef out, patted it semi-dry, and rubbed in the rub.  Remember to really rub the rub into the meat - it's not called a 'sprinkle'.  Once the fire was ready, we put the beef on the lower rack in the smoker, right above the water pan.  About 5 hours later, it was ready.  Over the course of of the 5 hours, we periodically threw in some more green applewood to keep the smoke going.

This was the first time I've tried to smoke vegetables.  I ended up losing track of time and didn't put them on as early as I wanted.  So, I cut them up, coated them with olive oil, salt, and pepper, wrapped it loosely in tin foil, then added them to the upper rack of the smoker.  After about an hour, they were soft and ready.

    Just before serving, my dad mixed up his barbecue sauce.

Resulting Deliciousness:

    This was the best smoked beef we've ever made.  The rub worked very well and the smoke flavor was fantastic.  The meat, however was the real star.  It was moist and so tender you could cut it with a spoon.  You could really tell the difference from going with good cuts of grass-fed meat.  The vegetables were good, but because they were pre-sliced, the smoke flavor was too strong.  Next time I wouldn't cut them up and would use more seasoning after smoking and slicing.

Although very good, my rub and my dad's sauce didn't closely follow any major style of barbecue, so any fans of a particular region would probably point out some shortcomings (although the apple wood was definitely a feature of our region of Western North Carolina).  I think the next few times I do barbecue, I'll try to follow a few different regions closely.  If you have any favorites that you want to see me try, tell me about it in the comments!