I'm back! Time for some new recipes! BBQ Roast Pork

Well, it's been a busy summer with the move from Missouri to Florida the beginning of August. Still many boxes to unpack but cooking is a stress reliever for me, so may as well try some new recipes while feeding the family. I am SO behind on adding recipes. I hope to become better about that.


BBQ Roast Pork
Down Home with the Neelys- Date Night episode- The Food Network





Ingredients

Dry Rub:
2 tablespoons smoked paprika
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 (3 to 4-pound) pork loin


Strawberry BBQ Sauce:



2 tablespoons canola oil
1/2 small red onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 cups strawberries, tops removed, roughly chopped
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup strawberry nectar or mixed berry nectar
1/4 cup strawberry jam
1 tablespoon dry mustard
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce




And just cuz I can-- check out those beautiful strawberries! :D


Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

Mix together all of the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Rub the pork with canola oil and generously sprinkle the rib all over the pork. Put in a bowl, cover and refrigerate overnight. This is what it looked like when I took it out of fridge the next day- and it smelled SO good!




BBQ sauce: Add the oil to a medium-sized saucepan over medium heat. Once hot, add the onion, garlic, and jalapeno. Saute until soft and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Add the strawberries and sugar and cook until the strawberries begin to break down and the sugar dissolves. Add the ketchup, water, strawberry nectar, jam, mustard, Worcestershire, salt and pepper. Simmer for 30 minutes.

Justing starting to simmer:


After 30 minutes:



Put the pork in a roasting pan and roast until an instant-read thermometer registers 145 degrees F, about 1 hour and 15 minutes. Brush with BBQ sauce the last 10 minutes of cooking.

Remove the pork from the oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.





COOKS TIPS:

It was hard to find the strawberry nectar in a couple stores. My husband found it in the Mexican section of a store, that is one spot I hadn't personally looked. It came in a can and was only about 50cents. I didn't realize I purchased a bone in loin- so when I got home, we cut the ribs off, so we had "ribs" and "boneless pork loin" when done. I put the rub on both and was in fridge overnight.

I baked in the oven as called for, to simply save time as I had hungry kiddos, otherwise I probably would have grilled outside the entire time. When it was time for basting, I did take outside to the grill and put the sauce on for last 10 minutes.




FAMILY CRITIQUE:

Most of the family wasn't thrilled about having to try strawberry BBQ sauce. They said it sounded gross and questioned why on earth I would want to ruin bbq sauce by putting strawberries in it. My husband at least didn't say it was gross, he said it sounded "different" but was willing to try it. My 11 year old nephew came for dinner and I was afraid he wouldn't even try it. He did, and he loved it. He even said it was tender, moist and full of flavor. My 13 and 16 year olds were pretty against trying it, and my son even went to the fridge to get the Kraft bbq out! It turns out they loved the strawberry bbq sauce, on the meat or with meat pieces dipped in, but not by itself. They wish they had more ribs as they really enjoyed those. I have leftover sauce in the fridge, so might get some ribs to use the sauce up. There was not one bite of the 4 pounds of meat left, my husband had thought it would be too much for the 6 of us. My Mom ate with us too and she said the sauce had a nicely sweet, flavorful taste to it with a tiny kick from the jalapeno. She was afraid it would be too hot as she doesn't like spicy, and I had used a good size jap. It was excellent, tho I think it was unanimous that next time let it grill a little longer so it is a little more crisp on the outside like they like it. I would take it out of the oven sooner tho, as this meat wasn't dried out at all, and I wouldn't want that to occur. I encourage you to try this!

Pork Chops in a Sweet Chili and Onion Sauce

Pork Chops in a Sweet Chili and Onion Sauce

My son Michael picked out this recipe from the bookshelf:
From Rachael Ray’s 365: No Repeats Cookbook


Ingredients:
Coarse salt
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO)
4 (1 ½-inch-thick) boneless center-cut pork chops
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large red onion, finely chopped
1 heaping tablespoon chili powder (a heaping palmful)
½ tablespoon ground cumin (half a palmful)
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
2 cups chicken stock or broth
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Preheat a large skillet over medium-high heat with 2 tablespoons of the EVOO (twice around the pan). Season the pork chops liberally with salt and pepper. Place the chops in the skillet and sear for about 2 minutes on each side to caramelize. Transfer the chops to a rimmed cookie sheet and place in the oven to finish off, 7 or 8 minutes, until the meat is firm to the touch, cooked through but not tough. Remove from the oven and let the chops rest, covered with a piece of aluminum foil, for a few minutes.

While the chops bake, return the skillet to the heat and add the remaining 2 tablespoons of EVOO, three quarters of the chopped onions, the chili powder, cumin, two thirds of the chopped garlic, the brown sugar, salt and pepper. Cook the mixture, stirring frequently, for 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken stock and simmer until reduced by half. Once reduced, turn off the heat and whisk in the cold butter.
Pour the sweet chili-onion sauce over the rested pork chops

MY COOKS TIPS:
First, the recipe was written to be served with a creamy cilantro potato salad. It sounds good but I had no cilantro in the house so didn’t make that. Part of the onion and garlic listed above was supposed to be used towards the salad. I used the entire onion and all the garlic for the pork chops as our family enjoys garlic. I also forgot to add the butter at the end; oops. It most likely would have tasted richer and been shinier in appearance, not sure how else it would have changed it.

FAMILY CRITIQUE:

This was made for Scott and Michael, per Michaels request. I told him we had pork chops I was making and go pick a new recipe, he picked this one. Ashley won’t eat pork chops and Zoe wasn’t home for dinner; although she didn’t like the smell as it was cooking. I wasn’t eating meat so I didn’t sample it. Scott and Michael really loved it and said they would definitely like it again in the future. Michael said first taste reminded him of tacos- probably due to the cumin; but then that flavor went away into something he couldn’t quite into words; only that he really liked it a lot. I made them each two, and they were eaten following day as afterschool snack. I told Scott I forgot the butter, it says it is obviously not needed, so may as well save the fat. They enjoyed it just the way it was and don’t want it changed.