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Of Rosemary and Roasts
by Guest Writer, Valerie Whitmore I do not have a green thumb. In fact, you could probably say I have the opposite of one. Plants don't really stand a chance around me. I'm just too busy and distracted with work that I don't really pay attention to them. Now, if they sat up and begged like my dogs do I might remember to water them. But alas (and thankfully) they don't.
So needless to say the landscaped and garden areas at my house aren't really lush and flourishing. If a plant can't survive with whatever watering schedule the sprinklers are on then it probably won't survive in my yard. Weeds, however, do very well here.
We do have many plants and shrubs here that are meant to be low maintenance but still look nice. One of those is rosemary. We have several shrubs around the property. The deer don't bother them and they have survived horrible droughts and freezing temps. More importantly, they've survived me.
Although rosemary is one plant that I might actually work to keep alive if it needed my intervention. I have to say I do enjoy not having to buy it at the store. Getting it fresh from the shrub beats grocery store quality any day. And living in Austin means that the rosemary is available just outside my front door any day of the year.
The younger shoots on the shrub are the ones best for cooking. They are softer and seem more fragrant.
The larger, older branches make great skewers for grilling because they are thicker and more sturdy. They are still very fragrant. I sometimes bring in a few branches just to have sitting on my desk. They smell so good!
Anyway, why am I talking about rosemary
Oh yeah... In addition to not being able to grow plants I also don't do well with roasts. Cooking them that is, not growing them. That would be weird.
I'm not sure if I am not buying the right cuts of meat (seriously - no matter what cut of meat the recipe calls for my store NEVER has it so I have to wing it) or if I'm just not patient enough. I can make an 12-course gourmet dinner but I can't cook a roast. If I mention we're having a roast that night - be it pork or beef - Brent will usually be spotted fixing a peanut butter sandwich before (or after) dinner. It's that bad.
The few roasts I've had success with, however, call for inserting garlic and/or other ingredients into slits in the meat. This one called Jon's Blue Cheese Special Roast was one of my favorites. It had blue cheese stuffed into the slits along with garlic. Amazing.
So, when I was looking for recipes to test this week I found one for a pork loin roast that had rosemary (see, there is a reason I brought up rosemary) and garlic in it. I thought I'd take my chances and make it. The nice thing was, all I needed to buy was the pork roast. I had garlic and onions on hand and all I had to to was walk out the front door with a scissors to get the rosemary.
For the recipe, the rosemary and garlic are finely minced (I used my mini-food processor) and put into the slits in the pork, which are about 2 inches apart. I use a knife to make the slits but then put a chopstick in to make the slit a little more accessible. I also use the chopstick to help push the garlic mixture in further
The rest of the recipe is simple: Put onions in pan. Put roast on top. Season roast with salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil. Into the oven it goes for a couple of hours.
The recipe turned out great! The meat was tender and oh-so-flavorful. Brent didn't need a peanut butter sandwich that night! In fact, he really enjoyed the roast for a change. One thing that the procedure of inserting the herb mixture into the slits does is make sure that the flavors are more evenly distributed. Instead of just having the outside of the roast taste like garlic and rosemary, each bite had more flavor to it.
So needless to say the landscaped and garden areas at my house aren't really lush and flourishing. If a plant can't survive with whatever watering schedule the sprinklers are on then it probably won't survive in my yard. Weeds, however, do very well here.
We do have many plants and shrubs here that are meant to be low maintenance but still look nice. One of those is rosemary. We have several shrubs around the property. The deer don't bother them and they have survived horrible droughts and freezing temps. More importantly, they've survived me.
Although rosemary is one plant that I might actually work to keep alive if it needed my intervention. I have to say I do enjoy not having to buy it at the store. Getting it fresh from the shrub beats grocery store quality any day. And living in Austin means that the rosemary is available just outside my front door any day of the year.
The younger shoots on the shrub are the ones best for cooking. They are softer and seem more fragrant.
The larger, older branches make great skewers for grilling because they are thicker and more sturdy. They are still very fragrant. I sometimes bring in a few branches just to have sitting on my desk. They smell so good!
Anyway, why am I talking about rosemary
Oh yeah... In addition to not being able to grow plants I also don't do well with roasts. Cooking them that is, not growing them. That would be weird.
I'm not sure if I am not buying the right cuts of meat (seriously - no matter what cut of meat the recipe calls for my store NEVER has it so I have to wing it) or if I'm just not patient enough. I can make an 12-course gourmet dinner but I can't cook a roast. If I mention we're having a roast that night - be it pork or beef - Brent will usually be spotted fixing a peanut butter sandwich before (or after) dinner. It's that bad.
The few roasts I've had success with, however, call for inserting garlic and/or other ingredients into slits in the meat. This one called Jon's Blue Cheese Special Roast was one of my favorites. It had blue cheese stuffed into the slits along with garlic. Amazing.
So, when I was looking for recipes to test this week I found one for a pork loin roast that had rosemary (see, there is a reason I brought up rosemary) and garlic in it. I thought I'd take my chances and make it. The nice thing was, all I needed to buy was the pork roast. I had garlic and onions on hand and all I had to to was walk out the front door with a scissors to get the rosemary.
For the recipe, the rosemary and garlic are finely minced (I used my mini-food processor) and put into the slits in the pork, which are about 2 inches apart. I use a knife to make the slits but then put a chopstick in to make the slit a little more accessible. I also use the chopstick to help push the garlic mixture in further
The rest of the recipe is simple: Put onions in pan. Put roast on top. Season roast with salt and pepper. Drizzle with oil. Into the oven it goes for a couple of hours.
The recipe turned out great! The meat was tender and oh-so-flavorful. Brent didn't need a peanut butter sandwich that night! In fact, he really enjoyed the roast for a change. One thing that the procedure of inserting the herb mixture into the slits does is make sure that the flavors are more evenly distributed. Instead of just having the outside of the roast taste like garlic and rosemary, each bite had more flavor to it.