Love. Food. Cook.

I haven’t been cooking all that much of late. It’s been a lot of easy eating out and ordering in to accommodate my busy schedule.   Not cooking often is painful.  I have less control over what is going into my body, less control over the flavours, less control of portion size, less control, less control and less control.  This weekend though is my weekend to cook and be happy… plus doing my taxes late. Ick. 

How does health get side-tracked all the time?  Other than remembering that we must sleep, we don’t place the same emphasis on doing those push-ups , squats and ab crunches.  The number one culprit for this is me.  The last 3 weeks have been the first time I’ve ever sloughed off my daily workout routine where I ended up peppering my workouts over the weeks with totally laziness and exhaustion.  I’ve have finally recuperated though.  The only problem now is that I feel somewhat out of shape, especially in today’s full workout where I kicked my own butt in the basement. There is nothing more humbling then crawling back upstairs afterwards totally out of breath.   Oh well.  It’s good to recognize where I am and face it. It’s no sweat, ha, ha.

I finally cooked something substantial and more up to par to what I normally do.  This whole recipe is based on a recent trick I picked up with preparing meat, which is brining meat before cooking it.  Oh my, does it ever add flavour and sort of gives meat a cured texture.  The pork I had in the fridge had been brining since Sunday.  It was time to take the merchandise out for a spin in the spice rub and hot oven. 

Roasted Spiced Pork
Yields 6 servings

Brine
¾ cup of white granulated sugar
¾ cup of salt
¼ cup of whole black peppercorns
4 dried bay leaves
2 tbsp of dried oregano leaves
3 cloves whole garlic, roughly chopped
2 pork tenderloins
Cold water

Spice Rub
4 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp dried oregano leaves
2 tsp dried thyme, grounded
1 tbsp dried cumin, grounded
1 tsp black pepper, grounded
2 tsp dried mustard
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
Olive oil

The first thing to do is to brine the pork. This has to be done at least 24 hours in advance before you plan to roast the pork.  Combine the first 6 ingredients in a large 2 -4 litre Tupperware container.   Add the pork tenderloins and fill the container with cold water until the pork is just covered.  Stir between the pork to dissolve any sugar and salt.  Cover with an airtight lid. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

After at least 24 hours of brining, remove the pork from the container and rinse thoroughly with cold water.  Set aside and pat dry.  Discard the brining liquid.

Preheat the oven to 440F.

Heat up a non-stick pan over high heat. Mix the first 8 ingredients thoroughly.  Toast the spices in the pan until aromatic (about 1 – 2 minutes).  Careful not to burn the spices.  Transfer the spices to a bowl to cool.  When cooled, rub the spices onto the pork tenderloins on all sides.  No additional salt is required since the pork has been brined in salt.  Place the pork in a roasting pan and lightly drizzle olive oil over the top.  Roast for 10 minutes and then turn the heat down to 350F. Roast for another 50 minutes.

NOTE:  You can prepare vegetables for the bottom of the pan and use them as a rack for the pork to rest and cook on.  In my case, I used a bunch of whole peeled garlic cloves, onions and carrots.  The vegetables will absorb the drippings from the pork and contain a lot of flavour.  When the pork is finished, you can finish off the vegetables by crisping them up in the oven for another 20 minutes at 430F.

Serve pork sliced with a side of roasted vegetables, rice, herbed couscous or lentil salad.  This also has great sandwich potential when sliced thinly and stuffed into a soft bun with julienned carrots, cucumbers, radishes, savoy cabbage, green onions, Dijon mustard and mayonnaise.

While normalcy settles in and I cut into my roasted carrot and inhale the spiced aroma from the roasted pork I realized that limits needs to be set for my body.   Since my slumber priorities are still intact I’ll start with no more crappy take-out food.  What are you going to start with?