Month: March 2016

Roasted Pork with Whiskey Plum Sauce

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My mama makes a MEAN Pork Roast.  It’s “slap your mama good”..pardon the pun!  My family and I grew up eating her roasts on Sundays and holidays, and the taste always conjures up those memories.  Lavish, over-filled plates of roasted meat, rice and gravy and fresh from the garden vegetables or ones pulled from the freezer from last summer’s harvest.  It conjures family and community and glorious chit chat that I long to remember and revel in my heart and mind.  No matter how many times I make Roasted Pork, it seems I always find myself dialing her number and asking the specifics of her recipe yet one more time.  Her tips no doubt change with each call…and that’s probably on purpose, don’t you think?  I mean, the magic she’s putting into her roast is her magic…the love and pixie dust she puts into her food is hers alone.  That magic is hard to communicate on a recipe card or pinterest board, or even in a phone conversation.  But still…I call, I ask, I attempt.

My Roasted Pork is a “riff” on my mama’s roast.  She would say, “well, you’ve gone and messed it up” but au contraire!  “Mama…wait ’til you get a load of this…and a taste!”  ROASTED PORK with WHISKEY PLUM SAUCE .  The sauce may change your life!  The tanginess of the plums marries so beautifully with the richness of the pork.  The faint sweetness of the whiskey is a delicious and unexpected note.  Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables as you serve or on the side as I have done and then make sure you have nice bread on the table to help clean the plate of all the saucey goodness!

Roast Table View
ROASTED PORK WITH WHISKEY PLUM SAUCE

INGREDIENTS:

  • 3 – 4 pound pork butt roast
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  • 2 Plums, pitted and quartered
  • 1 Large Yellow Onion, quartered
  • 2 Cloves Garlic, minced
  • Couple Splashes of Worcestershire
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh Rosemary
  • 1 lb carrots
  • 6 – 8 Red Potatoes, diced
  • 1 Cup Chicken Stock
  • All purpose Flour
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 shot of Whiskey (optional and I used Jack Daniels)
  1. Turn oven to 325 Degrees F.
  2. Place 2 Tbsp EVOO into Dutch Oven.  Turn stove top on high and heat oil (watch carefully…don’t burn the oil).
  3. Salt and Pepper your Pork Butt on all sides.  Don’t skimp…the roast can take it!
  4. Now sear the meat on all sides.  Make sure you end with fatty side up.  This way, the fat flows down into the meat while it’s roasting.  Juicy!!!
  5. Once the meat is seared, throw in your onion, minced garlic, plum and chopped rosemary… turn heat to med. high.
  6. Now douse with two or three splashes of Worcestershire Sauce over meat, plums and veggies.
  7. Pop into the 325 Degree oven…UNCOVERED.  It should look something like this going in…Roast Into Oven
  8. Walk away and cook for two hours.  Your home will be filled with the most delicious aromas.
  9. At the two hour mark, add your carrots and potatoes to the dutch oven.  I like to make sure I salt them as I layer the vegetables.  I also put a bit of the cooking liquid over the potatoes and carrots before returning to the oven.
  10. Set your timer and cook uncovered, one additional hour.  At the end of that time, your pot should look like this…Roast Out of Oven
  11. Turn off oven.  Remove the roast, potatoes and all but TWO carrots from the Dutch Oven onto a Serving Platter to rest.  Cover lightly with foil.
  12. The broken down bits of heaven that are left in the dutch oven should look like this and you are about to make sauce magic out of them.The Makings of the Plum Sauce
  13. Dump this mixture into a blender, reserving 1/4 quarter cup of the liquid drippings and leaving in the dutch oven.
  14. Pulse the roasted veggies and plums until pureed.
  15. Meanwhile, heat the reserved roasting drippings over a medium high heat.  Once bubbling, scatter a couple Tbsp flour into the reserved liquid and make a roux.  The flour will ball up immediately and at this point you will need to whisk in the chicken stock slowly.  Whisk out any lumps as it begins to cook and thicken, about 3 – 4 minutes.  It should look like this…Roux
  16. Return the roasted plum and vegetable puree’ back into the pot and cook on medium, stirring to heat through.
  17. Add the shot of whiskey and stir (optional).  Wait for the alcohol to cook out, about a minute, and then taste for salt and pepper.  Add as needed.  You may not need very much, if any, because you layered with salt as you added the vegetables to the roast.
  18. Simmer on low for about five minutes or until ready to serve.
Juicy and flavorful Pork
Comfort Food
Rich and Decadent Sauce

Enjoy this meal anytime but it’s especially great for Sunday Suppers, Holiday Celebrations and Friends and Family Gatherings!  And one more thing!!!…Roast Pork leftovers make excellent Pulled Pork Sandwiches later and I will be sharing my crave worthy BBQ Sauce in an upcoming post that you will want to make again and again!

Until then…Cheers!!!  XOXO

Roasted Pork and Sauce
ROASTED PORK WITH WHISKEY PLUM SAUCE

My Favorite Pound Cake (Dressed up for Easter!)

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Mandarin Orange Pound Cake - Half

When you grow up in the South as I did, you find that pound cake is in a food group all to itself.  You’ve had pound cake with strawberries and cream, pound cake with peaches and cream, with blackberries and cream, just whipped cream or your favorite ice cream.  You’ve had dry pound cake, melt in your mouth pound cake, TOO buttery pound cake (yes…there is such a thing), too dense pound cake, toasted pound cake, week old pound cake and on and on!  Pound cake is not seasonal for southerners, although we oftentimes pair it with fruits of the season as mentioned before.  And it always shows up on the Easter buffet…right along with the deviled eggs and potato salad seasoned with bacon fat.  My table will be no exception…but this year My Favorite Pound Cake will be getting “dressed up” in Easter finery with a flowery adornment of halo mandarins…an Easter Bonnet, if you will!

Reminiscent of the pineapple rings on a pineapple upside-down cake, the slices of fresh mandarin orange give this cake a sort of old world charm.  It’s rustic but beautiful…with the look of sunny spring flowers.   And the taste??!!!  A nectarous cake that is super moist and laced with a hint of citrusy sweet bitterness that comes across as very…hmmm…the best way I can describe it is sophisticated and clean.  Not too fussy…not overdone…not trying too hard cake.  Just simple and delicious.  And the look of the cake is stunning.  Halo mandarins are in season until April so including this particular pound cake for Easter should be no problem!  If for some reason you don’t like halos, just don’t include them in the recipe.  This pound cake is delish either way.

Mandarin Orange Pound Cake
A Cake as Pretty as an Easter Bonnet

The recipe for My Favorite Pound Cake is adapted from a Southern Living recipe published in 2006.  However,  I have tweaked it over the years using tricks of the trade handed down by friends and relatives who are GREAT pound cake bakers (Shannon Lollie and Connie Melzer to drop a couple names).  It is fail proof and amazing!!!

SOUR CREAM POUND CAKE

  • 1 1/2 cups butter, softened (hint…throw in a dollop more)
  • 3 cups sugar
  • 7 large eggs
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour ( I use organic and unbleached)
  • 1/2 tsp. salt (I add a pinch more)
  • 1/4 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 (8-oz.) container sour cream
  • 1/2 tsp. lemon extract
  • 1/4 tsp. almond extract
  • (If making the mandarin orange version, include a couple Tbsp. of Cointreau Liqueur if you have it on hand)
  1. If making the Halo Mandarin Version of cake…start by slicing halos in four thin slices and assembling at bottom and side of greased and parchment lined tube pan.  You will use from 8 – 10 halos.  See picture for assembly tips. If you are making “My Favorite Pound Cake” without fruit…forego step one.Mandarin Orange Placement in Bundt Pan
  2. Beat butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy.  Gradually add sugar, beating at medium speed until light and fluffy.  Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until the yolk disappears.
  3. Sift together flour, salt, and baking soda.  Add to butter mixture alternately with sour cream, beginning and ending with flour mixture (this is important).  Beat batter at low speed just until blended after each addition.  Stir in extracts.  Pour into a greased  12-cup tube pan.  I also line the bottom and part of side with parchment to assure that the cake will come out clean.
  4. Bake at 325 Degrees for 1 hour and 20 minutes to 1 hour and 30 minutes or until a long wooden pick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.  Cool in pan on a wire rack 10 minutes.  Remove cake from pan and cool completely on wire rack.
Pound Cake in Bundt Pan
MY FAVORITE POUND CAKE fresh from the oven!

Should you want a nice whipped cream to accompany the Mandarin Orange version…this one would be perfect!

WHIPPED CREAM

Makes about 2 cups (Prep:  5 Min.)

  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
  • 2 Tbsp. orange Liqueur

Beat whipping cream at low speed with an electric mixer until foamy; increase speed to medium-high, and gradually add powdered sugar, beating until soft peaks form.  Stir in Liqueur.

Mandarin Orange Pound Cake Slice
Buttery…Moist…Crunchy on the Bottom…Fruity on the Top

 

Mandarin Orange Pound Cake - Half