: 2 hrs 15 mins
: 4-6 people
Roast pork loin dinner
This recipe is a full dinner; it originated as a way of using the delicious drippings from a pork roast in other dishes at the same meal. The recipe produces three dishes: a pork roast, fried onions and mushrooms as a side dish, and a stir fried vegetable dish.
Ingredients
- 4 lb boneless pork loin
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp thyme
- 1 medium yellow onion (approx 1/2 lb), sliced into 1/4 inch slices
- 4 crimini mushrooms (approx 4 oz) (or any mushrooms), sliced into 1/4 inch slices
- 1/2 lb baby bok choi (or regular bok choi): stems cut into 1 inch pieces, leaves cut into 2 inch pieces
- two 1/8 inch slices ginger
- up to 3 tbsp unhydrogenated lard or grass fed tallow if needed
- up to 2 tbsp water or chicken stock if needed
- 1/4 tsp salt
Directions
- Take pork out of refrigerator 2 hours before starting to cook.
- Preheat oven to 450F. While preheating, put pork on greased rack in greased shallow pan, fat side up. Spread honey on pork, then sprinkle thyme over the pork. Place meat thermometer in pork so that tip is inside the roast, slightly below the center.
- Place pork in oven and immediately reduce heat to 325F. Roast until the thermometer reads 170F, 1.5-2 hours.
- While pork is roasting, cut onions and mushrooms, bok choi, and ginger into sizes specified in the ingredients list.
- When pork is done, transfer roast to a carving board and allow it to rest. Meanwhile, pour out the pan drippings into a white or light colored bowl. Pour about 1 tbsp of the fat from the drippings into a skillet, preferably stainless steel; pour the rest of the fat into a cast iron frying pan, reserving the darker water based liquid. A small amount of fat will remain with the darker liquid. If there is less than about 3 tbsp of fat in the frying pan, make up the difference with lard or tallow.
- Place ginger in skillet, add salt, then preheat skillet over high heat, approx 30 seconds for a light weight stainless steel pan. When skillet is preheated, add bok choi stems and stir fry until heated through, approx. 1 minute. Add bok choi leaves, then pour remainder of pan drippings from bowl over the leaves. If there are not at least 2 tbsp of dark liquid in the drippings, supplement with water or chicken stock. Reduce heat to medium and cover, cooking for three minutes. Place on serving plate, pouring excess liquid from the skillet over the bok choi.
- While bok choi is cooking, preheat cast iron frying pan over high heat, approx 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium high and fry mushrooms and onions in the fat, 2-3 minutes per side. You may be able to start the skillet and frying pan preheating at the same time if you can juggle the cooking tasks.
- The pork roast, bok choi, and fried mushrooms and onions make for a nice complete meal. Add some fruit for dessert if you wish. Serves 4-6 with leftover pork roast. If you prefer, you may double the amount of onions and omit the mushrooms, or double the amount of mushrooms and omit the onions.
