Balsamic and Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Roast

I served this at the hospital party last Christmas and it got the same rave reviews from that crowd as it did my family.  I love Jamie Cook’s It Up blog I get many keeps from her kitchen.

www.jamiecooksitup.blogspot.com 

Balsamic and Brown Sugar Glazed Pork Roast

Time: 10 minutes prep + 4-6 hours cooking

Yield: 6 servings

Recipe from Let's Dish via Pinterest

1  2 pound pork loin

1 t sage

1/2 t salt

1/4/ t pepper

1 t garlic

1/2 C water

Glaze:

1/2 C brown sugar

1 T cornstarch

1/4 C balsamic vinegar

1/2 C water

2 T soy sauce

1. Place your pork roast on a pan, or plate. 

2. In a small bowl combine the salt, pepper, rubbed sage, and garlic. Press the seasonings into the pork roast. Spray the inside of your crock pot with cooking spray. Place the seasoned pork roast inside and pour the water along the edges of the roast. 

3. Cover and cook on low for 4-6, depending on how hot your crock pot cooks things. You are looking for an internal temperature of 180 degrees. 

4. In a small sauce pan, combine the glaze ingredients. Bring it to a boil while stirring and let the sauce thicken. (Should only take a couple of minutes.)

5. Drizzle some of the glaze over the top of the roast and let it cook for another 30 minutes. 

6. Remove the roast from the crock pot and let it sit for about 5 minutes. Slice it thinly, drizzle the remaining sauce over the top and your are ready to eat. It's fabulous served with rice and a green veggie...or with roasted vegetables

I (Jill) serve this with the glaze on the side. 

SIDE: Seasonal Steamed Veggies or Roasted Carrots (2 Tablespoons melted butter. Salt and Pepper to taste) Quick steam them in the microwave then roast them in the oven at 400 degrees until tender.

Sweet Cafe Rio Pork

There are several recipes I have seen for the Cafe Rio meats. Having only eaten there a few times on my visits to Utah I don't really know if they taste like the restaurants meats or not, but we enjoy them anyway. Sorry I don't recall taking a picture of this meal. It makes a lot of food so prepare it when you have company coming or plan to freeze it.

Sweet Pork

1 (3 lb.) Pork loin roast, thawed if previously frozen

1 (16 oz/ 2 cups) jar of Salsa

1 can green chilies

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 can black beans, undrained

Tortillas

Cheese

Lettuce

Tomatoes

In the bottom of a large crock pot mix salsa, green chilies, brown sugar, and black beans. Add the pork roast and cook on high for 4 hours. Take the meat out of the crock pot and shred with a fork. Return meat to crock pot and cook one hour more.

Serve on tortillas with cheese, lettuce, tomatoes or your other favorite taco toppings.

Yeilds 8 servings (We actually served 4 adults for two meals, plus had enough leftovers for our family of 5 to have an additional dinner.) The recommended 8 servings must be HUGE because I felt like each time we served it everyone ate nice size helpings.

**We served it in both hard and soft shell tacos and both were great.

Make it meal and serve it with Cafe Rio Lime Rice, Cafe Rio Pico de Gallo, and Tomatillo Cream Cafe Rio Dressing (Awesome dressing!) if making it into a salad instead of a taco, but we also like the dressing drizzled on our tacos.

Cafe Rio Chicken (2 different recipes here)

My good friend Sharla served this at a surprise birthday lunch she hosted in my behalf. Everyone loved the recipe so of course I had to ask her a copy. And of course I had know idea about the surprise, so there is no picture. Doesn't a soft shell taco all wrapped up look the same anyway? It isn't hard to imagine it is it. YUM!

Cafe Rio Pork or Chicken (Sharla P. family recipe)

4 lbs. Pork Roast or Chicken

2 cups brown sugar

1 (12-14 oz) jar Salsa

2 cans Coke (24 oz or 2 1/2 cups)

FOR PORK:

Place roast in crock pot, fill half way with water and cook for 6-8 hours on low. Disgard water. Shred meat with forks and return to crock pot. Combine sugar, salsa, and coke in a separate bowl. Add to crock pot. Cook about 3 hours more on low. Stir Occasionally

FOR CHICKEN

Simply add chicken to crock pot. Combine sugar, salsa, and coke in a separate bowl; add to crock pot. Cook 5-6 hours on low (or until chicken is done I have several crock pots and they all cook at different rates). Stir occasionally.

Place in a warm tortilla on a plate. Top with Rice, Black beans, pork/chicken, lettuce, and top with plenty of Creamy Tomatillo Cilantro Dressing.

Cafe Rio Chicken (www.365daysofcrockpot.com)

5 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thawed

1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing

1 Tablespoon Chili powder

1 Tablespoon Cumin

3 Cloves Garlic, minced

Mix all ingredients except the chicken in a bowl. Place chicken on bottom of a greased crock pot.

Pour mixture in a bowl over the top of Chicken. Cook on high 5-7 hours. Shred chicken with a fork and reserve juice to pour over chicken when serving.

Tuscan-Roasted Veggies with Pork Bake

This tasty little recipe we tried to night comes via kraftfoods.com. It called for pork tenderloin pieces, but I just bought simple boneless loin chops and cut them in half and it worked just fine. My kids of course loved the roasted veggies, they were the first to disappear off their plates. It was simple to toss together and the parchment paper made for a snappy clean up. We would eat this one again. I will more than likely add more veggies then called for because the kids love them.

This recipe says it serves four, we stretched it to feed 3 kids and 3 adults. Our visitor M.H. was a bachelor for a few nights while his wife and kids were out of town. Told me that I couldn't tell his wife he ate the veggies. He said he didn't think he had ever eaten a sweet potato--shocker! By the end of the night he said, "You can tell my wife. I don't think she will make this recipe though because she is not a fan of pork. I love pork...." So N.H. if you feel up to trying pork one night, M. will eat this ;-) (It will be our little secret!)

We served this with French bread and a side Toss-salad, followed by a P.B. chocolate chip cookie. Love simple dinner nights like this one!

Tuscan-Roasted Vegetable and Pork Tenderloin Bake

4 cups coarsely chopped sweet potatoes, celery, red onions.

(I used 2 sweet potatoes, 3 ribs celery, and a sweet onion)

1/4 cup Tuscan House Italian Dressing and Marinade

(I didn't have this, but I did have a Good Seasons dry mix that I mixed up and then used)

2 Tablespoons Grated Parmesan Cheese

(I left this out--I sure find out all the ingredients I forget to put in when I am blogging the recipes lately! Duh. Good thing is we liked them with the items missing so it works great!)

1 Baking apply, coarsely chopped (I used golden delicious)

1 lb Pork tenderloin, cut into 8 pieces (I used 4 loin chops cut in half.)

1 pkt. Shake N' Bake Extra Crispy seasoned coating mix

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Toss vegetables with dressing and cheese (or forget it like me;-}); spread onto parchment paper-covered baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes.

Stir in apples. Coat meat with coating mix as directed on package; add to baking sheet. Bake 20 more minutes until meat is done (160 degrees) and vegetables are tender.

Apricot-Hoisin Pork Chops With Somen

We love to try new recipes--takes the drudgery our of the daily duty of cooking. We liked this Asian tasting pork chop. The Somen noodles were great, but I don't have weekly access to these nice noodles, so I also made angel hair pasta (similar in size and texture) to see how they compared. The angel hair pasta is thicker in consistency (taking 8-10 minutes to cook) which makes them a little more chewy. Somen noodles are extremely soft and take only 2 minutes to cook. We served this with our favorite vegetables of the season.

Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 pork chop, 2 Tablespoons sauce, and 1/2 cup noodles)

Ingredients

4 oz uncooked somen (wheat noodles) or angel hair pasta

1/2 cup fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth (I use regular)

1/2 cup apricot preserves (I used 1/4 cup apricot & 1/4 cup peach jams)

1 Tablespoon hoisin sauce

2 Tablespoons dark sesame oil

4 (4 oz) boneless center-cut loin pork chops (about 1/2 inch thick)

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Cook noodles according to package directions.

While noodles cook, combine the broth, preserves, and hoisin in a medium bowl, stirring with a whisk.

Heat sesame oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Sprinkle pork chops with salt and pepper. Add pork to pan; cook 2 minutes on each side or until browned. Add broth mixture; bring to a boil, and cook until sauce is reduced to 1/2 cup (about 8 minutes). Serve over noodles.

Katsudon--Japanese Style Cutlets

We made this recipe months ago (From my Cuisine at Home magazine) and I thought I had blogged it already. My kids LOVED IT! This Japanese cuisine is wonderful and delightful for the taste buds. Katsudon I learned is part of the "donburi" family which means "rice bowls". So this is Japanese style "fast food". Cooking ethnic dishes almost always requires a few ingredients that most cooks don't have on hand. There are two in this recipe that may require you to make a trip down the Asian section of your grocery store or to your Asian market. If you don't have Mirin and panko on hand you can replace them with dry sherry cooking wine and regular bread crumbs. It will still taste great, but you must promise me you will try to use the authentic ingredients sometimes just to taste the real deal!

Prepare:

1/2 lb. pork loin cutlets, or Chicken breast or Turkey tenderloin

1 1/2 cups raw medium-grain rice

Simmer:

2 cups yellow onion, sliced thinly

2 cups low-sodium chicken broth

1/2 cup mirin

1/2 cup low-sodium soy sauce

2 Tablespoons sugar

4 slice fresh ginger

Bread Cutlets in:

6 eggs, lightly beaten (I thought this was over kill--use 4 if you need more then crack them.)

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

Heavy pinch black pepper

2-3 cups panko crumbs

Fry in:

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Serve cutlets with prepared rice and chopped scallions

Prepare pork for cutlets. Cook rice as directed on package and keep warm until serving.

Simmer onion, broth, mirin, soy sauce, sugar, and ginger in a large saute pan over med-low heat until onion is soft, 15 minutes.

Before breading the cutlets, beat the eggs in a shallow dish (like a pie plate), mix flour, salt, and pepper in a second dish, and place the panko in a third dish.

Bread cutlets by first dredging both sides in flour mixture then dipping into the egg, and following with the panko. Then "double bread," dipping into the egg, then panko again. Transfer to a rack or plate until ready to fry. Heat oil over medium-high heat in a second saute pan.

Fry cutlets in batches, browning on both sides until cooked through, 6-8 minutes total. Transfer cutlets to a cooling rack set over paper towels to drain.

To serve, place 2 cutlets in the simmering broth; cook 1 minute to warm through. Remove and slice cutlets, place on top of some rice, ladle with broth, and sprinkle with scallions.

I like to serve this with a simple mix of green lettuces and julienned carrots with an Ginger Asian Dressing (Like you would have in a Japanese restaurant.)

Pork Chili Verde Tacos

I got this recipe from the Sisters Cafe, it was a hit with my family. I loved that it was low maintenance to prepare. My brother-in-law loved the change from the regular tacos that they usually have.  We added more toppings then they suggested which made these taco's even all the better.  We served it with a side of Mexican rice (which we don't have a great recipe for so if anyone has a good recipe to pass on to us we would LOVE IT!) It makes a lot so if you aren't having company over and have a small family, freezing the left overs worked well for us.

3 pounds pork roast, fat removed as much as possible -They sell a three-pack of pork roast at Costco (*If using a roast any larger than 3 lbs, double the remaining ingredients)

1 onion chopped

3 cloves garlic crushed

1 10oz can green enchilada sauce

1 4oz can diced green chilies

1 14oz can diced tomatoes with chilies 

2 chicken bouillon cubes

½ tsp cumin

½ tsp oregano

¼ tsp pepper

The original instructions are included, so you can choose your method. Crockpot vs Oven

In a large pot or fry pan, over medium heat, brown meat, then add onion and garlic and saute a few minutes. Place in crockpot. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, cover and cook on low for 7-8 hours. 1 hour before serving, remove roast and set aside. Strain out the onions and tomatoes as much as possible and put with the roast. Pour remaining liquid into a large saucepan. (I place the roast and strained solids back into the crockpot, TURNED OFF, with the lid on to keep warm.) Bring the liquids to a boil on the stove, and simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, stirring every now and then, until considerably reduced. (If you are in a hurry like I seem to be most dinner times no matter how much I think I have prepared ahead. How does that happen? I used to small frying pans and split the liquid in half and it reduced in 15-20 minutes, depending on who thick you like your sauces.) The point is to concentrate all the liquids to make a thicker sauce. This is a very important step, because all the flavor is in this liquid, and you want to preserve all that flavor for the meat. If meat has too much liquid it runs out the back of the burritos. (You could also opt to drain the tomatoes at the beginning to make this step go faster.) Mix the thickened sauce into the shredded meat and serve. Serve with warm tortillas, Monterey Jack cheese, cilantro, diced tomatoes, avocado, sour cream, and lettuce (Sister Cafe recommended Monterey pepper jack is good too.)

Original instructions say: Cube roast. In a large heavy pot, over medium heat, brown meat, then add onion, garlic and ½ cup water with the bouillon cubes. Cover for 15-20 minutes then stir, getting all the brown bits off the side of the pan. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, cover and cook on low for 2-4 hours (or in oven at 300°).

Danish Meatballs

This is a Foodies menu from Jeana Pope.  She got this recipe from a friend who served in Denmark. I made some modifications noted with and *.  Thank you Jeana for this recipe and cultural experience.  This recipe will have to be cut in half if I make it for my little family again. This recipe served 6 adults (3 men, 3 women) and 6 small children with some leftovers.

1 lb ground beef  *Diet Lean meat 93% Fat 

1 lb ground pork (just ask your butcher for it)

2 large eggs

Mix meat and eggs together then add:

4 Tablespoons of breadcrumbs

1/4 cup milk or cream *1 % milk

1 medium onion finely diced

1 clove of garlic minced

* 1 teaspoon salt

* 3/4-1 teaspoon pepper

Form golfball size meatballs/patties and put them in the frying pan over medium heat covered for about 30 minutes. Check temperature of meat to make sure they are done. Use drippings from the meat as a gravy. Serve with pickled red cabbage and mashed potatoes. 

* We served ours with mashed potatoes, squash, fresh tossed green salad, and homemade rolls. I couldn't find the pickled red cabbage. Jeana said you can find it near the pickles in her local Albertsons you might have better luck than we do here in our small town. I also did some looking on the internet these meatballs are a staple for most Danes. They serve it with potatoes broiled, baked, mashed or with rice--take your choice. Most of their recipes are pretty basic without a lot of spices so this was kid friendly.

**Because I used lean meats I didn't have drippings for gravy, so I made a cup of beef base/broth and deglazed the pan with it and then added a flour thickener and salt to taste to make a small amount of gravy.  

Roasted Pork Tenderloin with Pecan Curry Stuffing and Red Currant Glaze-

Preparation Time 20 minutes Cooking time 65 minutes Standing time: 5 minutes
Yields 3 to 4 servings (Depending on your sides I have stretched it to feed more)
(www.meals.com)
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons margarine
1 ½ cups walnut or pecan halves, chopped and divided
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 teaspoons olive oil
1 large clove garlic
1 ½ pounds pork tenderloin
1 ½ teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
1 jar (12 oz) Red currant Jelly
2 teaspoons cooking sherry wine
¼-½ teaspoons crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
½ teaspoon ground ginger
2 Tablespoons diced shallots

Directions for PORK : PREHEAT oven to 350° F.
MELT margarine in small skillet over medium heat. Add walnuts; cook, stirring frequently, for 1 to 2 minutes or until lightly toasted. Reserve 1/2 cup walnuts for garnish.
PLACE remaining walnuts, curry powder, oil and garlic in food processor; cover. Process until finely ground, approximately 5 to 7 seconds.
BUTTERFLY pork tenderloin by cutting along the length with a sharp knife to within 1/2 inch. Press open. Evenly spread walnut mixture down center. Pull pork together; secure with skewers or tie with cooking string. Combine coriander, cumin, salt and pepper in small bowl; rub over pork. Place pork seam side down in 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
BAKE for approximately 1 hour or until internal temperature reaches 170° F. Remove from oven; allow to rest for 5 minutes. While pork is resting, prepare sauce.
FOR GLAZE: COMBINE jelly, sherry, crushed red pepper, vinegar, ginger and shallots in small saucepan. Bring to a boil; reduce heat to low. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Cover to keep warm. SLICE pork into 1/2-inch slices; arrange 2 to 3 slices per plate. Spoon glaze over pork; sprinkle with reserved walnuts.
SIDES: Fresh Salad or other seasonal vegetable.
New Orleans Wild rice (from a box-prepare as directed) toss ½ cup Crasins in rice after just prior to serving when you fluff it with a fork.