Blog.EmealsForYou

(From The Other Meat Entrée Collection at emealsforyou.com)

Stuffed Pork Roast

Here is another blog about the NJ trip a few weeks ago, the good news being another recipe.  My mother-in-law suggested that she would like to have a pork roast while we were home.  This appealed to me as I always love a good pork roast, especially one with a deep, dark gravy.  We started with a center cut, boneless pork roast and a sharp knife.  First make a cut about an inch deep and an inch long into the roast.  Now begin to cut around the edge of the roast, maintaining the inch thickness. ( think jelly roll here and you will get it)  Continue to cut around the roast until you have a flat piece of meat.  At this point it makes sense to pound the meat with a tenderizer, I used a rubber mallet I found in the basement, to both tenderize the roast and to make sure the thickness is equal.  This is important so that the roast cooks evenly.  Our next step is to prepare the stuffing, this can be almost anything that makes sense to you, bread stuffing, sausage, mushrooms or in our case spinach and things.  Make your stuffing and cool it in the fridge until you are ready to stuff the pork roast.

Place the stuffing evenly onto the roast, keeping about an inch on all sides free of the stuffing.  Don’t over-stuff the roast as the stuffing will only fall out.  Serve any extra stuffing on the side.  Now take some butcher’s twine or string (unflavored dental floss will work in  a pinch) and slide it under the roast in about 5 places.  Roll the roast, secure with the string, no fancy knots needed, just secure the roast so that you can cook it without it falling apart. Place the rolled roast into a hot oven-proof roast pan on top of the stove and brown on all sides.  Place in oven according to the recipe below and cook until done.  Remove roast from the pan to a serving plate and let it rest for 20 minutes or so.  In the meantime make the gravy.  Slice the roast, drizzle some of the gravy over the roast and serve.

We made some spaetzle, surrounded the roast with it and served the gravy on the side.  This was so good I think I may have to make another very soon.

Stuffed Pork Roast

Butterfly the pork roast. This is easier than you think. Start at the top make a cut down one side about 1/3 of the thickness of the roast. Cut down stopping the same thickness from the bottom; repeat on the other side. (think of an envelope with two flaps) Cover with plastic wrap and pound with a rolling pin to flatten the roast. Salt and pepper both the inside and outside of the roast.

Sauté spinach, onions, sun-dried tomatoes (chopped) and garlic in a pan until spinach is wilted. Salt and pepper to taste. Add hazelnuts and cool.

Spread the cooled spinach mixture on the pork roast. Roll the roast back to its original shape. Tie with cotton string in several places to hold it together.

Brown in an oven-proof pan. Place pan in a pre-heated 350 degree oven for 45 minutes or until a thermometer registers 160 degrees. Remove from oven, remove meat to a platter to “rest”. Place mushrooms in the pork pan on medium, cook for 2 minutes. Add consommé and red wine. Cook for 3 minutes. Whirl in butter and pour over pork.