Roast Pork: Greek Style

It's no secret that I love a good pork roast. The fat. The meat. The flavor.

Recently, I reposted a post from my trip to Paris in 2010. It covered my feeling towards my first (and only) Parisian-style Greek sandwich. It was great. Check out the picture of it (and me) here.

I decided to make a roast that would mimic the flavors of the meat in the Greek sandwich, while still being not too much work. The recipes I found all involved cutting the raw meat into thin slices, marinating them and then quickly panfrying or grilling them. I didn't want to take the time, nor did I have any interest in cutting up raw meat.

My method uses all the same spices, but with way less effort. I simply marinated the whole pork roast in a mix of herbs, spices and vinegar. The end result tasted very close to the real thing, though I know if I'd taken the time to actually slice up the meat and marinate thin slices, they would absorb even more of the great flavor.

I ended up making a Greek Sandwich Salad (read: no bread, but all the other great stuff that was in the original sandwich) with the cooked roast. Using my handy electric knife, I was able to slice the pieces nice and thin, which let the with plenty of delicious pork roast for the week to come.

Greek Spiced Roast Pork

Ingredients:

  • 2 pound pork loin roast
  • 2 tablespoons crushed oregano
  • 2 tablespoons sweet paprika
  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 3 teaspoons black pepper

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
  2. In a bowl large enough to hold the roast, mix together all the spices and cider vinegar.
  3. Put the roast in the bowl with the spice mixture, turning to coat all sides.
  4. Leave in the marinade for at least thirty minutes and up to overnight. If you are doing a longer marinade time, cover and refrigerate the bowl.
  5. Once the roast is marinated, remove it from the bowl and place on a rack on top of a roasting pan.
  6. Roast for 20 minutes then lower the temperature to 375 degrees and roast for an additional 30 minutes.
  7. Remove from the oven and let sit for ten minutes before slicing.
  8. Slice thinly (I love to use an electric knife here) and serve!

Get Your Knives Sharpened, I Mean It.

I've told the tale more than once about Gran Fran's aversion to sharp knives. She winces whenever I take one out of my knife block. My brother once demonstrated how much more dangerous her butter knives were than his super swanky sharp chef's knives. To no avail, she continues to believe it's safer to have dull knives in her kitchen.

I have had some of my knives for almost twenty years and they've never been sharpened. It occurred to me that on Christmas Eve several  years ago my friends and family showed up with their own chef's knives. When asked why, they all said that my knives were too dull and they refused to cook with them. I didn't agree, and stubbornly refused to get them sharpened.

The other day, I was walking to my neighborhood farmer's market and saw the knife sharpening truck. I remembered stories from Gran Fran's childhood that included the traveling knife sharpening man. She had described a horse drawn truck of sorts with some sort of  a sander, which I believe was powered by a foot pedal, but not too sure. You'd drop your knives off and a bit later, you'd get them back. I'm a little hazy on the details, but the truck in my neighborhood seemed to fit the bill. You can read her post about the sharpening man here.

If this truck was close to what Gran Fran was describing from a good 60 years ago, I figured I'd give it a go. It was time, I decided, to see if my friends and family were right. So I packed up all six of my knives and handed them over to Saucy Joe for some sharpening.

Let me tell you, when I picked them up from him, he showed me that they could cut through paper, like nothing at all. I got them home and cut some veggies and meat. The slices were thin, even and incredibly easy. The knives were better than new (though maybe they were once this sharp, I clearly can't remember). And, I didn't even use a serrated knife for the tomatoes, just my regular chef's knife!

Saucy Joe has a video on his site that shows one and all how to sharpen your knives in between professional sharpening appointments. If you have a traveling sharpening truck in your town, please, go get your knives sharpened. You will be amazed!

Orange You Glad I made a Tart?

Herewith a recipe for an orange puff pastry tart. It's so easy, it's almost criminal. If you use pre-made dough, there are only 4 other ingredients involved.

My daughter saw the finished product and asked when I had found the time to make the tart. She was sitting in the kitchen with me the whole time, but because it took such little effort, she had no idea I had made an entire tart.

This is the first time I've tried oranges as part of a tart. I really like the scent of the vanilla with the oranges and love how the segments look all laid out in rows on the pastry dough. Get creative here and add more fruit, or even a thin layer of warmed up apricot jam onto the dough before you place the orange segments.

Served warm with a scoop of coconut milk ice cream you will be brought right to summer's doorstep.

Note on the pastry dough:

Since this tart was for my co-workers, and not good old gluten-free me, I used a standard puff pastry, but did come across this gluten-free version from an Australian site. Or, you can make your own, using this recipe from the blog Tartelette, which I plan to do very soon.

Orange Puff Pastry Tart

Ingredients:

  • 1 sheet frozen puff pastry
  • 2 cups oranges, rind removed and cut into segments
  • 2 tablespoons of sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
  2. Mix the citrus segments with the sugar, vanilla and lemon juice.
  3. Lay the puff pastry on a baking sheet, pricking it with a fork, to keep it flat while baking.
  4. Place the citrus segments on the puff pastry.
  5. Crimp the edges of the pastry dough up over the edges.
  6. Bake for 30 minutes, or until the crust just begins to brown.
  7. Add the remaining juice/sugar mixture and bake an additional 10 minutes, until the crust is crispy.