The Joy of Roasting

This Friday I woke up early and walked over to the market. I wandered around for a bit before a beautiful piece of meat caught my eye. I took it home and wondered what to do with it and eventually decided to continue my foray into roasting. There seems to be a love of roasting among my peers; who doesn’t salivate at the thought of hot, slightly crispy meat? Vegetarians. But one would be hard-pressed to find a vegetarian whose eyes don’t widen at the mention of roasted squash or eggplant. On the other hand, there also seems to be a fear of roasting. We seem to associate the term with the hassles of Thanksgiving dinner, endless basting and burnt hands or, worse, with the disappointment of dessicated beef slathered in some sort of sauce and served with watery mashed potatoes in cafeterias and mediocre restaurants. However, inspired by love of roasted meat and vegetables, armed with McGee, and emboldened by recent successes with roasting chicken bits, Jason and I set forth to make some dinner.

Italian-esque Roast Pork Loin With Winter Vegetables

Although I had set off to the market to get some chicken, this beautiful piece of pork loin ($4!) caught my eye.

We let the meat come up to room temperature and then rubbed it with olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary. Then we polka-dotted it with garlic slivers and put it into a moderate (350°) oven.

While the meat was starting to roast, I blanched and peeled a butternut squash that I had bought back in November and wanted to finally get rid of. Blanching the squash whole for just 3 minutes makes it possible to peel it with a humble vegetable peeler instead of slicing open one’s fingers attempting to prize the flesh from the peel with a knife. Also, it makes it possible to peel the squash whole and take nice pictures that remind us why winter squash is great:

After cleaning it, I cubed the squash along with some potatoes and onions. By the time I had finished with all this, the pork had been in the oven for about 30 minutes. We pulled it out and flipped it. The fat had already begun to render, coating the roasting pan with a layer of molten fat. We spread the vegetables around the meat, and they began to sizzle immediately.

This went back into the oven for another 40 minutes until the meat was done and the vegetables were nicely roasted. We let the meat rest for a few minutes so the juices could be reabsorbed by the muscle fibers and then carved it up and enjoyed. The garlic and rosemary offered an aromatic, slightly bitter counterpoint to the richness of the very juicy pork, and the squash and onions turned out candy-sweet and rich from the fat and juice of the meat while the potatoes were a hearty background that gave the meal a certain solidity.