Roast pork

I know I seem to post a lot of recipes on this blog, and hardly of the other stuff that I said I was going to post, like travel, DIY, etc. I do need to import my travel entries into here, but I don't really have the time with the move, work and study! Oh yes, we are moving! Only to a rental at this stage as we sold our little unit (sob, sob) and need to build our dream house! It is a vacant block in a beautiful suburb in Tasmania, but that is all I will tell you. :)

Of course, I will DEFINITELY be chronicle-ing (is that word) all the trials and tribulations that we will be going through whilst building. Prepare for a whingefest! :)

But onward to today's entry, which is PROBABLY not clean-eating compliant, but it is oh-so-delicious and, when done right, hands-down my favourite roast! Luke and I observe roast night on Sundays quite strictly, and barely a weekend goes by when I do not make a roast at home.

ROAST. PORK. 

I love it. Crackling is God's single, best creation and it has taken me YEARS to perfect it. I still stuff up and burn the top bits sometimes though, I forget that I need to watch it like a HAWK in the last five minutes (and I will explain why later).

As to the seasoning, I keep it really simple. SALT. That is all I use. Served with beautiful roasted veggies, spuds and apple sauce, this does not need anything else.

So here it is, my roast pork recipe:

Ingredients

Rolled pork shoulder - approx 1.5-2 kilos
Salt
Oil (I used canola oil)

Method

Start by unrolling the pork. I try to get the pork to sit as even as possible so that it will roast evenly. Even if it means cutting a bit off the bottom. It's no biggie that that bit gets roasted by itself. A snack midway through the cooking, I say! 

I usually wash my meat. It's my thing, whoever doesn't like it (and there are many out there) can get over it. And I can TELL (prior to cooking) whether the meat has been washed. Just a quick rinse, that's all I'm asking. Then I pat it dry with a paper towel. Make sure that the skin is very VERY dry.

Grab a Stanley knife and make more scores on the rind. There is never enough on there, and a few more extra slashes really make the difference. Just don't get Dexter on it.

Oh, and did I mention to turn on the oven to its fullest temperature? For me, it's 250C. Turn it up up up.

In a baking pan, season the pork. Rub a bit of oil all over the skin and sprinkle more salt. When the oven is piping hot, shove the roast in there for 40 mins (you heard me).

After 40 mins, turn the oven down to 180C and cook for another hour or so. It really depends on how big your roast is. The guide says to cook for 40 mins per kilo, and I usually follow that. But 40 mins on high. I can't stress that enough.

Once the pork is done, I make it extra crackly by turning on the grill. Now, WATCH YOUR PORK!!! It only needs about 5 mins or so, but it goes from zero to BURNT in a matter of seconds! (kinda like popcorn). Once it's where you want it to be, pull out the pork and rest it 10-30 mins. While waiting, I give you permission to pick at the crackling and start nibbling before anyone catches you.

ENJOY! :)

xoxo

Sausage rolls

I actually wrote this on the weekend, and published it, but the computer at home hates me, so completely stuffed up! Please note that I, in no way, think for once that this is clean eating! :)

We Australians love our sausage rolls (note how I have considered myself as an Australian, even though I bloody hate their stupid marshmallows - take my word for it, it is revolting. Other than that, I love this country). When I first arrived in this country, I didn't understand sausage rolls. Only because I was only exposed to Asian sausage rolls - little frankfurters baked in a soft, sweet, doughy and yummy bun. sefekklwj - oh, sorry, I was wiping my drool off the keyboard.

When I first ate an Australian sausage roll, I'm not going to lie, I thought it was disgusting. Never touched it again. Cut to six years later, when I was working at this telephone company (not mentioning any names), and the job was so awful, I took every opportunity to leave the office. To the cafe next door. Which, as you might have guessed served sausage rolls. I finally succumbed to peer pressure and tried one. And it was heavenly. And the rest, is history! 

Recently, I've taken to making my own sausage rolls. My husband loves homemade sausage rolls, and like the dutiful wife I am, I make it when I can. Store bought puff pastry, and sausage mince, some minced beef and some other yummy surprises, it's not only fun to make, but pretty yummy too! Try it, if you have a moment or two to spare.

This particular one has a hint of curry in it. I might have gotten carried away and bought a kilo's worth of Malaysian curry powder, and I'm trying to use it in as many things as I can! So if you're wondering why on earth did I flavour my sausage rolls with curry, that's why. That doesn't mean that you can't omit this in the recipe.

Sausage rolls

500 gms of beef mince
125gm of sausage mince (one quarter of the sausage mince loaf which I get from Woolies - I then portion them all out and freeze separately)
Half a zucchini, grated (sometimes I use grated carrots too, but didn't have any at hand. And I had four zucchinis... which turns out, you can use for alot of things... but there is a future post on that)
Quarter cup of couscous (yes, you read that right, but if you didn't have any on hand, you could substitute with breadcrumbs)
2 tbs curry powder
Salt to season
Store bought puff pastry
Sesame seeds
1 egg - lightly beaten

Method

If your pastry is in the freezer, time to defrost.
Pre-heat oven to 180C.
Put mince, sausage, zucchini, couscous, curry powder and salt into mixing bowl and roll up your sleeves. 
Time to get messy! Mix all ingredients until well-combined. And I'm talking until it looks like a big mushy mess. Squish it between your fingers, and just have fun with it!
Set aside.
Cut your pastry sheet into two. Make a delicious meat log with the mixture and place in the middle of the cut pastry sheet. 

Fold the pastry over so that you have a meat and pastry log.

Cut into 6.

Apply eggwash to each.

Sprinkle some sesame seeds.

Bake for 20 mins at 180C then turn up to 200C for an additional 10 mins!
Serve with some good ole tomato sauce and enjoy!

Mount Wellington from my guest room window

I am slowly moving some bits of my old blog "A rolling stone" to this one. It's essentially the same, but I like this blog name better! It also gives me a chance to edit my previous stuff!

Anyway, this is a picture I took from my guest room window on a lovely winter's day. It has been a fairly mild winter (much to my annoyance) but here's hoping it will be uber (yes, I'm missing an umlaut) cold next winter!