Italian Pork Roast & Uses for Leftovers

I love using an economical cut of meat to make something spectacular. This recipe is a great way to prepare an expensive pork roast, with a little twist on the traditional. It is great sliced and served with veggies and mashed potatoes, in a sandwich, and so many other ways. I'm going to show you how I prepared it, and the various ways I served it.

One of our local grocers had boston butt on sale for .99/lb, so of course I had to get some. Boston butt is usually sold in 3-5 lb packages. I sent my hubbie to buy two. He called me very perplexed and asked where I planned to store so much meat. "Uh, in the freezeer" I replied. "I'll bring you one, if you still want more, I'll pick another one up tomorrow". I said "OK"; but I was a little confused, until he got home five minutes later. These suckers were being soldin 20 lb packages. It was huge, two would NOT have fit in my freezer, I wasn't even sure about one. Luckily, Hubbie was able to cut it into four 5lb roasts and pack them in the fridge.

 Ingredients:

Boston Butt (pork shoulder) - 3-5 lbs
Garlic - 2 cloves
Fennel Seed - 1 TBS
Salt - 1 TBS
Dried Rosemary - 3/4 TBS
Pepper - 1 tsp
Ground Cloves - 1pinch

Grate garlic with a microplane, addthe remaining herbs and spices and mix together. Place the meat in a roasting pan, fat side up. Score the top in a criss cross pattern. I go through the fat and maybe 1/4 inch into the meat. Rub the spice mixture into the meat, pushing it into the score marks as you go. Cover with foil or plastic wrap and let it sit for at least a few hours. I seasoned mine about 11:30 Monday night and let it hang out until 7:00 Wednesday morning. Then I put it in the Crock Pot on HIGH for four hours, then switched it to low for about four hours.

These are some sandwiches I have made from the leftovers this week:

 

Pork roast, onions that were cooked with it, romaine pepperoncinis, and mozzarella on a focaccia roll, drizzled with oil & vinegar.

 

 

Pork roast, grilled zucchini, grilled onions, grilled bell peppers, spicy bread and butter pickles, pepperoncinis, mozzarella, and feta on a focaccia roll, spread with Dijon mustard. I made this into a panini since I already had the panini maker out to grill the veggies on.

 

We also made Pulled Pork Sandwiches, BBQ Pork Pizza, and sliced pork roast with gravy made from the juices.

 

So, next time you see Boston Butt or Pork Shoulder roasts on sale, pick one up. It's an economical cut of meat that can be made into several delicious meals. For more inspiration, check out my Boston Butt post.

Veggie Fried Rice - Use up those veggies

I love vegetables. I purchase them with good intentions of preparing delicious, fresh vegetable dishes. That doesn't come naturally to me, vegetables were more of an afterthought in our house when I was growing up. A can of corn or green beans, always drenched in butter. I'm not sure why, since most of us love vegetables. Last week, there were great deals on so many fresh vegetables at my local grocery store. I snapped up squash, zuccini, bell peppers, green beans, and a few others. I had good intentions for them, I really did. As I shopped, ideas were popping into my head left and right. But, almost a week later, I'd used less than half of them. Determined not to let them go to waste, I decided to make veggie fried rice, since I also had leftover rice in my fridge. It was delicious. I often make extra rice for the purpose of making fried rice. Left over meat and veggies make excellent fried rice ingredients.

There really aren't specific amounts of anything. Just chop up what you have or what sounds good.

1 large carrot, diced
1 large celery stalk, sliced small
1/4 of a large onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 handful of green beans, cut about the length of the bell pepper dices
1/2 of a yellow squash, diced
1.5 cups leftover brown rice
1 egg
Sesame Oil
Soy Sauce
Fish Sauce

Heat 1 TBS sesame oil and 1 TBS olive, grapseed, or canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add celery and carrots. Allow them to cook whike you chop the rest of the veggies, since they take a little longer.

  Add veggies, saute until bell pepper is softened.

 Add rice. Allow rice to heat through and get a little crispy, if you like it that way

 When rice is cooked to your liking, make a well in the center, add a drizzle of oil, and crack the egg in the center. Allow the egg to set a little bit, then scramble it and mix it in with the rice.

 Spinkle on some Soy sauce and fish sauce. I realize most people do not have fish sauce in their refrigerators, but I urge you to try it. It is a very inepensive ingredient that does wonders for Asian / Thai style home cooking.

Serve it up with soy sauce. I dished it into lettuce cups, mostly to use the lettuce up, but it really makes a decent vegetarian lettuce wrap.