Wolfgang Puck - A TRADITIONAL ROAST FOR EASTER

ArcaMax Publishing > Home & Garden > Recipes > Wolfgang Puck

ArcaMax Publishing ezines! - Family Friendly News & Fun

Your email address is safe with us. View our Privacy policy.

Food and Wine Pairing Guide:

Match the perfect wine with your recipes using our Wine Pairing guide

The Funnies:

Get free jokes, comics, and more! See them all on
our funnies page

Books:

Read the classics online or by email. More details on the books page

A TRADITIONAL ROAST FOR EASTER

By Wolfgang Puck, Tribune Media Services

Every year at Easter, my mother would roast a ham for our family table. It made a glorious main course: deeply browned and glazed outside, rosy pink within, succulent, tender, with the perfect mix of salty and sweet flavors.

I still think first of pork when I'm planning my own Easter meal. And it has to be a roast, which makes the most sense when you want an impressive star for your meal, but don't want to spend too much time working in the kitchen.

I have to admit, however, that I've strayed from ham. I love a good pork loin roast, one of the tenderest, most flavorful cuts you can buy. And I have fun experimenting with different combinations of ingredients that complement the meat's unique qualities, usually adding some form of fruit to play up its sweetness and a creamy sauce to highlight the meat's richness. I'll also sometimes include mushrooms, which complement pork's robust side.

You can find all those elements working in harmony in my recipe for Roast Pork Normandy, a traditional celebration dish from one of France's top apple-growing provinces. You get the flavor of that fruit from golden-brown sauteed apple wedges, as well as from a splash of Calvados -- Normandy's traditional apple brandy, available from well-stocked liquor stores. Cream enriches a sauce based on good quality broth and the deglazed drippings from the roasting pan, embellished just before serving with some quickly sauteed mushrooms. Delicious!

Then, of course, there's the pork itself. Go for a pork loin roast with the bones attached, which will help keep the meat moist and more flavorful as it roasts. Because pork today has been bred to be leaner, I also like to brine the meat overnight in the refrigerator. Letting the uncooked meat soak in this salty solution enhances the juiciness of the cooked roast, and also allows the brine's salty, sweet, and spicy flavors to penetrate every bite.

Let me add one final important piece of advice about the pork: Don't overcook it, which can really dry out lean pork, even a roast that you've brined. Gone are the days when health scares led everyone to cook pork until it was well done. Modern meat industry practices are delivering much safer products to our markets, so you should cook the roast to the point at which it's still slightly pink in the center, judging doneness with the aid of an instant-read thermometer. Then, let the roast rest, covered with foil, while you finish the sauce and garnish. The meat's residual heat will continue to penetrate to the center, so that by the time you carve it the pork will be perfectly done and wonderfully juicy.

Happy Easter!

ROAST PORK NORMANDY

Serves 4

BRINE:

2 quarts water

1/2 tablespoon ground cloves

1/2 tablespoon ground ginger

2 tablespoons cracked black peppercorns

6 bay leaves

1/2 pound kosher salt

1 1/2 cups honey

1 1/2 cups maple syrup

PORK, APPLES AND SAUCE:

2 pounds pork loin roast, with ribs attached

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

4 tablespoons Calvados

1 cup organic chicken or beef broth

1 cup heavy cream

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 Golden or Red Delicious apples, preferably organic, each peeled, cored, and cut into 8 wedges

1/2 pound mushrooms, wiped clean, trimmed, and sliced

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh chives

At least five hours before you plan to cook the pork, or the night before, brine it. Put the water, cloves, ginger, black peppercorns, bay leaves and salt in a nonreactive pot large enough to hold the brine and pork together. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to a simmer and stir in the honey and maple syrup until dissolved. Remove from the heat and leave the brine to cool to room temperature.

Rinse the pork under cold tap water. Lower it into the brine and place a clean kitchen weight on top to keep it submerged. Cover the pot and refrigerate overnight.

About 1 1/2 hours before serving time, preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

While the oven preheats, season the roast with salt and pepper. Place it on top of a roasting rack in a roasting pan and put it in the oven. Roast until cooked through but still slightly pink inside, about 40 minutes; the pork should register 150 degrees when an instant-read thermometer is inserted into the center of the roast not touching bone. Transfer the roast to a heated carving board or serving platter and cover with a double thickness of aluminum foil to keep it warm.

Remove the rack from the pan and pour off excess fat. Place the pan over a burner on the stove, set to medium heat. Add the Calvados and stir and scrape with a wooden spoon to deglaze the pan. Then stir in the broth and continue deglazing. Carefully pour the liquid into a saucepan, stir in the cream, bring to a boil over medium-high heat, and continue boiling, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is slightly thickened, about 15 minutes. Pour through a fine-meshed sieve into a clean pan, cover, and keep warm.

In a large, heavy saute pan over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of the butter. Add the apple wedges and saute, stirring occasionally, until tender and golden brown, 7 to 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, melt the remaining butter in another large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add the mushrooms and saute until they just begin to brown, about 4 minutes.

Stir the mushrooms into the strained sauce. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasonings, if necessary, with salt and pepper.

Just before serving, use a sharp carving knife to cut the roast across the grain into slices about 1/2 inch thick. Spoon the sauce and mushrooms onto heated serving plates. Arrange the meat slices, overlapping, on top of the sauce. Garnish with apples, sprinkle with chives, and serve immediately.

(Chef Wolfgang Puck's TV series, "Wolfgang Puck's Cooking Class," airs Sundays on the Food Network. Also, his latest cookbook, "Wolfgang Puck Makes It Easy," is now available in bookstores. Write Wolfgang Puck in care of Tribune Media Services Inc., 2225 Kenmore Ave., Suite 114, Buffalo, N.Y. 14207.)

This news arrived on: 04/04/2007

Share this Story