Stuffed Roast Pork

We were out Saturday night for dinner with some friends.  We ended up going out to a German restaurant on Long Island and I ended up eating pork loin, which happened to be on the menu for Sunday dinner this week.  I prepared the loin to cook this morning, but decided to wrap and hold it in the refrigerator for Monday instead.  This meal is one generally reserved for holidays, but my husband has been asking me to make it since I didn’t make it on our last holiday.  He purchased the meat and brought it home, so how could I possibly say no.

My dinner friends have been friends since we were in kindergarten.  These are the best kind of friends to have, as you have so many shared memories.  We went all through schooling together K – 12, so there’s nothing we didn’t experience together growing up.  I’m thankful we have kept in touch through our adult years and truly enjoy the times we spend together.  I wish we lived closer to each other, but we still manage to see each other several times each year.  Each time we meet, there’s tons of laughter and reminiscing of days gone by.  Gail is the memory keeper who inevitably cleans a closet and finds a photograph, or note we wrote each other back in junior high school.  This was the 1970s version of a group text.  It’s so much fun to read something your younger self wrote.  Marianne was always the level headed one in the group, whose current self loves to call to question that label.  Barbara, who couldn’t make it this time, was and continues to be the wild child who keeps us laughing all night.  These ladies have shared much of my life journey and I’m thankful to have them still in my life.

 

Sunday morning we decided to hold off on our roast, but I still needed to prepare it for cooking.  I came across a cooking page – Cooking with the Kingfish – recently that showed an easier way to cut a roast for stuffing.  I decided to try that out with this roast and it worked out well, super easy.  I prepared my sausage stuffing, cut the roast, pounded, stuffed, rolled and tied it for roasting  It was then placed in a roasting pan and wrapped for overnight.  On Monday, my husband will place it in the oven while I am at work for roasting.

Sausage Stuffing 

Ingredients

• Onion chopped
• 2 celery stalks chopped
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• Sausage meat (I used sweet removed from casing)
• Rye bread (half loaf)
• 1/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp thyme
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Chop celery and onions small and saute in tablespoon of unsalted butter until soft (4 minutes)
2. Add sausage meat and brown
3. Add chopped garlic and cook for 1 minute
4. In separate bowl place cubed bread
5. Pour sausage and vegetable mixture over bread
6. Add egg and spices
7. Add 1/4 cup of chicken stock
8. Mix with hands until fully blended and set aside.

Stuffed Roast Pork Loin

Ingredients:

• 5 lb boneless pork loin
• 1 onion chopped large
• olive oil
• 4 sweet potatoes chopped into large pieces (1 – 1/2 inches)
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tbsp paprika
• salt & pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Pour cup of coffee because it’s far too early for wine and turn on Alexa for dancing in the kitchen.
2. Rough chop onion and place in roasting pan
3. Wash and pat dry roast and place on cutting board
4. Slice gently with sharp knife the long way, almost in half but do NOT cut all the way through.
5. Unfold the roast.
6. Starting at center and moving toward outer edge slice in half without cutting all the way through and unfold
7. Repeat this step on other half
8. Place plastic wrap over roast and pound to even out
9. Place stuffing on top of flattened roast and spread evenly
10. Roll roast long way much like you would a jellyroll cake.
11. Tie roast with roasting twine
12. Rub pork with 1 tablespoon olive oil and sprinkle with paprika.
13. Stir together the flour, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Rub the seasoned flour mixture evenly over the pork loin. (I didn’t put the flour on yet in the photo below. I’ll do that tomorrow, just prior to roasting.)
14. Place on top of onion and sweet potato in roasting pan
15. Add 1 cup of chicken stock to bottom of pan
16. Roast in oven at 450 degrees F for about 10 minutes.
17. Reduce oven to 350 degrees F and continue to roast for 60 minutes
18. Insert meat thermometer into pork – not stuffing – ready when 150 – 155 degrees F
19. Let pork rest for 10 – 15 minutes.  Temperature should be 160 degrees F
20. Slice with sharp knife and serve

In the past I just cut the roast almost in half and stuffed.  Rolling it made distribution of stuffing more even and presentation was much nicer. Delicious and enough for my dad and leftovers.