Pork Roast

We've always done our pork roast in a pressure cooker, since that is how our Goan friend Nicole taught us! Yesterday, I decided to actually roast a leg in our oven. The marinade was my own concoction, not a traditional recipe. Oh, and I did the right thing by it to have made a nice and juicy sauce to go with it . Might I add, we had 7 very blissfully satisfied human beings by the end of the experience. :)

p.s. If you're doing this for dinner, it's best to start preparation after lunch.

(serves 6-7)

Prep time:
marination: 3 to 5 hours
baking: 2 hours

We need:

For the Roast
1.5 kg single cut of pork with a generous layer of fat
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
6-7 cloves garlic crushed
1 tablespoon ground pepper/ pepper powder
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1 teaspoon cumin or zeera powder
1 tablespoon sugar
juice of 1 big lime or 2 small
juice of 1 big kinnow or juicy orange

For the sauce
1/4 cup red wine
juice of half a kinnow
dash of ground pepper
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon cornstarch
salt to taste

Marination:
1. Wash and pat dry the pork. Place in a glass utensil fat side down.
2.Mix the olive oil, chilli powder, cumin powder, ground pepper, lime juice, sugar and crushed garlic in a medium-sized bowl.
3. Rub the marinade into the meat.
4. Leave for the next 2 hours.
5. Squeeze the juice of the kinnow and drizzle it over the meat. Do not rub in. In about another half hour to an hour, it's ready to go into the oven.


Roasting:
1. Preheat the oven - choose a high temperature setting.
2. Place the pork, fat side up on a grill rack. Place the grill rack on a tray that can collect the drippings.
3. Place this arrangement inside the oven. Be careful not to burn yourself.
4. Let it roast till a skewer goes in the central part of the flesh and the juices that ooze out are more or less clear (a little bit of rosiness is not bad - it means it is done medium). The pork should be nicely browned and crispy on the outside.

Sauce:
1. You should have collected about a cup-full of drippings in the oven tray. Add half a cup to a pan and put on heat.
2. Add enough water to the cornflour to make a thin paste and mix well making sure no lumps remain. Slowly add this paste to the drippings while stirring.
3. Add the wine, kinnow juice, ground pepper and sugar. When adding salt, remember that there has to be enough salt in the sauce because there is none in the roast. Reduce while stirring occassionally till it reaches the desired consistency. I avoid making to it too thick.

Note: When you carve the roast, it's best you carve thin slices, with a little bit of both meat and fat on each piece.

That's it.

Serve with mashed potatoes, steamed vegetables or a leafy salad. :)

Vibha Aunty's Mooli Saag Salad

You may hate mooli saag, but you are likely to love this salad. I know I do!

I don't know if it's a traditional Maharashtrian treatment (Vibha Aunty is from Maharashtra) or if it's the sheer genius of Aunty's culinary skills. Recreated in our household by my father-in-law, who's a wonderful cook!

We need:
Fresh Mooli Saag
Ginger
Lime
Green Chillies
Salt

Procedure:

1. Wash and chop the mooli saag into 1/2 cm strips. Bits of mooli tops are welcome.

2. Grate the ginger, chop the chillies and squeeze the lime to make the dressing. Add salt as per taste. The proportion of ginger, chillies and lime is up to your taste sensibilities.

3. Add dressing to chopped saag minutes before serving. The saag should remain crunchy and should not be allowed to stand in the dressing before being served. Once on the table, it gets polished off before you know it!!!



Raphanus sativus longipinnatus:
That's the scientific name of mooli!!! It's originally from Japan, it seems, and is part of the radish (Raphanus sativus) family. In Japanese, it's called Daikon (literally meaning long root). It's used in China, Thailand, Vietnam and other south-east Asian countries. Oh, and it's called moo in Korea. Thought that was kinda cute.