Something about that picture puts me in mind of a fish. No idea why. Anyway, so in yet another magazine post (hey, at least it’s a different one), Food Network magazine puts out 6 issues per year, instead of the usual one per month. This recent addition is action-packed with recipes, including one for hot buttered rum. I’ll give you one guess as to who created that one!

Buried amidst the plethora of turkey and stuffing and other traditional Thanksgiving feasts was a section entitled “A Cuban Feast” and it had me at this title: Slow-Roasted Pork with Citrus and Garlic. You might have picked up on it by now, but I love pork. I think I  subconsciously look for the pork recipes before I even consider other meats. This particular recipe calls for a 6-8lb Boston butt, which is a shoulder cut (also used to make the incredibly and surprisingly delicious cabbage soup from Veselka) and not only does the grocery store I use to buy my meats not carry any that size, it’s just too much for my small family. The side dishes listed weren’t great for us, not big squash eaters here and bananas flambé, well, let’s just say I think it’s better if I don’t intentionally light things on fire in my kitchen since I do it so well accidentally already. I served this up with some honey-balsamic glazed carrots and some pan-fried corn with red pepper and parsley.

I can’t lie to you, this was an insane amount of prep for a roast that was not particularly spectacular, which actually did not surprise me too much as Saveur’s Caribbean pork roast was also heavy on prep but disappointing on flavor. I don’t want to discourage you from making it though, because taste is such a subjective thing, but be prepared. I’ve cut the recipe in half here and it should serve 4 comfortably.

Slow-Roasted Pork with Citrus and Garlic
(adapted from Food Network Magazine)

5 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon fresh oregano
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1 tablespoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 bay leaves
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
1 3-to-4-pound Boston butt pork shoulder
Juice of 3 oranges, peels reserved
Juice of 2 lemons, peels reserved
Juice of 2 limes
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 white onion, thinly sliced

OK, here’s where the work starts. The magazine said prep would be 40 minutes. My experience was closer to 90 minutes, and it might be because I don’t have a juicer so I squeezed my citrus by hand, and since I had cuts on both hands I opted to leave the peel on and just cut it off after. If this is something you plan on doing as well, I did score four lines down each fruit before cutting in half, to make peeling easier.

In your food processor (or blender, or mortar and pestle) blend the first five ingredients into a paste. It may not look like one, but it should feel like one. Don’t expect the spices to get too finely ground, this is more like a slightly damp rub than anything. Trim any excessive fat from your pork and cut deep slits about every 2 inches all over. I tend to just stab mine with a paring knife, I’m not sure precision is especially important here. Rub your spice mixture all over the pork, into the slits, and set aside for now.

In a large glass or plastic (no metal! acids + metal = reaction!) bowl, whisk together the juice of the oranges, lemons and limes, the Worcestershire sauce and the olive oil. Submerge the pork as best you can in the marinade, then top with the onions and finally, the orange and lemon peels. Cover with plastic wrap (not foil! acid + metal = reaction!)  and marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours and up to 2 days. (I let mine marinate for 12 hours.)

Preheat the oven to 450F. Remove the peels and chuck ‘em into the fridge for later. Place your pork onto a rack and into a roasting pan and roast, uncovered, for an hour. Keep the marinade and onions, you’ll need them later. After an hour, take your pork out and turn the oven down to 350. Pour the marinade over the roast and top with the onions, cover with foil and roast for another hour. Take the pork out, add the peels on and around the pork,  and roast for another 1-2 hours, basting with the juices occasionally. The recipe says to cook until it reaches 190, but at it’s peak mine only got to about 184. It doesn’t matter, pork is safe at 160 (Mark Bittman says 150) and is lovely, juicy and flavorful at that temperature anyway. Let it rest for 10 minutes, slice and serve.

Can I just tell you, the idea of leftovers, chopped, on toast with gravy? It’s really working for me right now. I’ll have to try it.

Anyway, I’m going to be up front and tell you that the proportions for these side dishes are going to be estimates. I didn’t work from a recipe (!) and it’s so fun to just throw some of this, toss some of that, that I failed to write down what I used. So play with it a little, both recipes here are extremely forgiving.

Honey-and Balsamic-Glazed Carrots

4-6 medium carrots, peeled and julienned
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup honey
3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

To julienne your carrots: slice in half lengthwise, then into thirds across. Take each piece and slice into 3 or 4 pieces lengthwise. If pieces look large, turn them on their sides and slice again lengthwise. Though really, there’s no reason you couldn’t do baby carrots or coins instead of strips, you would just need to adjust the steaming time.

Speaking of steaming time, add the water and the pat of butter to the skillet, give it a few minutes to warm up, then add the carrots. Cover and allow to steam for 10-20 minutes, crisp-tender is the goal but your preference is key. If you like softer carrots, let cook to the long end of the time frame. Once the water is almost evaporated, add the honey, stirring to coat, and then the balsamic, and allow to reduce to a glaze. Towards the end, add your salt and pepper to taste.

Pan-fried Corn with Red Pepper and Parsley

3 ears of corn
1 Tbsp butter/margarine
Pinch of red pepper flakes or cayenne
1/2 tsp dried parsley, or 1 Tbsp fresh Italian parsley
Salt and pepper to taste

Really, any kind of corn will do here. You could use drained canned or thawed frozen, but as a former contestant of the Little Miss Sweet Corn pageant of Gibson County, Indiana, I favor fresh yellow sweet corn.

To prepare fresh corn for the pan fry, shuck the ears (if you peel from the bottom, the silk is easier to deal with), trim the bottoms and steam for 10-20 minutes, or until crisp-tender. Corn should not be mushy, it needs a bit of bite to it, imo, but again, it’s all about preference. Once it has reached desired doneness, run under cold water to cool and slice kernels off the cob. Don’t worry if it stays in chunks, it’s nicer that way anyway. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, add butter and allow to melt.  Add corn, red pepper, dried parsley and your salt and pepper, and cook just until corn starts to brown. If using fresh parsley, chop and add to corn once corn is finished cooking.

I would love to know what you thought of that pork roast, so tell me if you try it out!

What the hell is matambre?

As it happens, I asked myself the same question when I first ran across a recipe for it. Saveur’s version calls it “Vegetable-Stuffed Rolled Flank Steak” which conveniently enough is exactly what matambre is: a giant slab of beef loaded with veggies and rolled up. According to the internet this is an Argentinian dish that has been around for a long time. I was all set to make Saveur’s recipe when I was menu planning two weeks ago, but I had picked up Mark Bittman’s “How To Cook Everything” and he had a recipe too, and one a bit less complicated than Saveur’s.

1 flank steak, 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 lbs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon fresh marjoram or oregano leaves or 1/2 teaspoon dried
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 bunch fresh parsley or 1/2 bunch parsley and 1/2 bunch cilantro
3 medium carrots, cut lengthwise into quarters
6 strips roasted red peppers
3 slices provolone cheese, cut into strips
1 large red or white onion, cut into chunks,
1 bunch spinach, watercress, or arugula, well washed and chipped
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1. Heat the oven to 375F. Butterfly the flank steak: Using a long, sharp knife, cut the steak almost in half with the grain, then flip it open, like a book. Sprinkle with salt and pepper on both sides, then turn it cut side up, wide side facing you. Sprinkle with the marjoram, cumin and garlic and cover it with a layer of the parsley. Then arrange the carrots, peppers, provolone, and onion in vertical rows, making 2 rows of each — you won’t have enough to make rows across the entire steak because you need a couple inches free to make it into a neat roll. Scatter a relatively even layer of spinach over all.
2. Roll the whole thing up like a jelly roll: Start with the narrow side; the grain of the steak should run the length of the roll. Tie in 3 or 4 places with butcher’s twine. Put the olive oil in a Dutch oven or roasting pan large enough to accommodate the rolled steak over medium-high heat. When hot, deeply brown the steak on all sides, about 15 minutes, and then transfer the pan to the oven and roast for 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 hours, until the meat is tender to the touch.
3. Transfer to a cutting board or a clean baking dish and let it rest for 30 minutes  — it will be too hot out of the oven. Slice into 1/2 to 1″ pieces and serve.

It’s amazing how those menus are working out, 15 days later and I still have one dish to make, and there were only 8 on the menu. Anyway.

So, knowing that it would take effort I chucked the flank steak in the freezer until I ran out of easier things to make and that turned out to be today. So, after defrosting in the fridge overnight, I got to work on the first step: butterflying the meat.

I’m not sure what part of my brain thought, oh hey, this will be cake, but whatever it was, it was wrong. I am pretty sure I chose a bad knife for it, and I also had no idea what I was doing. Warren had to stop me from overanalyzing what “with the grain” meant, which is sad on many levels. At any rate, I should have had one long, rectagular piece of meat with a fairly even thickness, and instead I had a thick side and a mangled side. You work with what you’ve got though, so I moved on.*

(*after watching a few videos, I now see that I did it completely wrong. next time I will research BEFORE attempting a new technique instead of after.)

Carrots, onions, garlic, Italian parsley, baby spinach and a cleaver. Not pictured: provolone, roasted red peppers, cumin, salt, oregano and black pepper.

Both recipes, in fact I suspect all of them if they’re claiming to be traditional, call for carrots, spinach and hard-boiled eggs. I’m with Mark Bittman on this, the idea of eggs in my meat just doesn’t work at all for me, so I substituted roasted red peppers and some provolone instead (I read…somewhere, can’t remember, that someone had used provolone and thought that sounded like a good idea.). If you ask me, the garlic is absolutely crucial, it soaks through the meat and just, man, so good.

Your meat, after seasoning, should look like this. No comments on my incredible garlic mincing skills, please, or I will just assume you’re jealous.

Your meat, layered as follows: parsley, alternating rows of carrots and onions, topped with provolone and roasted red peppers. You don’t want to stuff it too full or it won’t roll, but you want it to have enough that it gives that lovely pinwheel effect when you slice it.

Mine, for instance, could have used more spinach and parsley. The spinach is supposed to help hold all of the rest of it inside.

Roll it up, starting from the short side top, and tie it with cooking twine. This was easily the hardest part for me and one for which I can tell I have no natural aptitude. In theory, this would have been a nice tight roll with the veggies and greens evenly distributed and neatly covered all the way around by the meat. But, again, I was thwarted by the not-good job I did with the butterflying and I think I had my carrots and onions packed too close together. Whatever, anyway.

Chuck it in the dutch oven or other large cooking vessel to brown on all sides. Though Bittman says 15 minutes, it certainly did not take me that long, which probably means my heat was too high.

The outside of mine was a little overdone, and by a little I mean it was nearly jerky level, the insides however were just dandy. An hour and a half in the oven at 375 will net you a similar result. Next time I will take it out at the hour mark and see if it keeps the outsides a little more moist. You have to let it rest for 30 minutes and let me tell you, my dog wanted so badly for me to leave the room just long enough for her to snatch it off the cutting board. And she would have, too, and would have considered any burns worth her time.

All in all, it really wasn’t overly complicated or fussy to make, and definitely a learning experience. I am really impressed with how well this cut takes to both roasting and garlic, and I think there’s a lot you could do with the rolling technique – chard, broccoli rabe, any greens, with some shallots and smoked gouda. Oh my. Anyway, it’ll be a nice change from traditional roasts every now and then.