Dinner Tonight-Pork Roast

I know I started this blog for baking, sweets in particular, however I do enjoy all types of cooking and since everyone has to eat dinner every night, I decided to start a new feature- Dinner Tonight. Because let's be frank, the worst thing about cooking dinner is deciding what to make. I hope this gives people some ideas. I know I love to go to other blogs to get inspired.

I asked Dear Husband what he wanted for dinner and he said pork loin, dilled new potatoes and green beans.

For the pork I made a real simple paste: garlic cloves, chopped onions, fresh rosemary, olive oil, white wine and salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste; and blended it for a couple of minutes. Sorry I didn't measure anything, but I was after a garlicky taste so I loaded up on it. You only need enough liquids to make it a thick paste, you don't want it to be runny. I then took my pork loin, and after ridding it of excess fat, poked a lot of holes in it with a knife. Next I poured the paste onto the loin and made sure it got into the holes, rubbing it all over. I marinated it for a couple of hours in a plastic container, and put it on a roasting pan along with some more white wine. I used a Moscato I had open in the refrigerator but it was too sweet, next time I will try a drier wine or just some chicken stock. I then roasted it at 350 degrees for about an hour ( I had a 1.2lbs loin), turning and basting every 15 minutes or so. You want your pork to be cooked but not overdone, as it gets dry and rubbery. Pink with no running juices is good.

Dear Husband used the pan drippings to make gravy, but that's his specialty, I have no idea how he did it...maybe he will get inspired and post it here on a comment.

For the potatoes, I wanted the "New Potatoes" variety but they did not have it at my local grocer, so I bought small red potatoes instead, and it was fine. I put them into a pan with just enough cold water to cover it, and then boiled them until a fork inserted into the potatoes came off easily. To serve we coated them with butter and dill( they were NOT peeled).

The green beans got their ends snapped off, and were boiled until tender but with a little bit of a "bite" left, the way Dear Husband likes them.

And of course, being from Brazil, I just had to cook rice. I sauteed chopped onions, olive oil, salt and minced garlic, added the rice, pan fried it for a little bit, then added cold water. You need two cups of water per cup of rice. I brought it to a boil on high heat with the pan uncovered, once it was nearly done I turned the heat down and put a lid on the pan. Perfect rice every time. I like to use the " Bastami" variety.

                                        The pork loin before going into the oven, with the paste on.

                                                                   Dinner was yummy!