Ask the A2K cooks!

No problem, mismi.



Oh good!

In a fit of food boredom, I decided to make a pork loin roast. I found a recipe I liked:

olive oil
lemon juice
thyme
garlic
salt
pepper

I followed the recipe, adjusting for my portion size. The outside of the pork, which had been rubbed with the ingredients, was positively delicious. The inside was dry.

How can I prevent this from happening again? Not the delicious part. The dry part.

How long did you cook it and at what temperature? How did you cook it? How big was it?

Pork needs less time than we all think - it really doesn't have to be 165 deg inside but we've all been conditioned to think that. It's best when it's a bit pink.

All meat also cooks for another 5 - 10 min or so (depending on its size) after you remove it from the oven.

I think you may have hit the nail on the head, mame.

The cookbook said it should be 185 degrees. I didn't get there. But I did get to 170. Too much.

I'm agreeing with Mame..

Absolutely delighted your taste buds are in such good working order, Roberta!

As for advice in such things, I always leave that to the experts.

The dealie about pink pork for all those years was about trichinosis, which had not be a pork problem for a long time. But it's back again as a potential problem with, ironically, some free range piggies. Since I can't spring for the free range kind, I'll still have my pork roast somewhat (though not thoroughly) pink on the interior.
I do have a bias against those pork loin logs one can get - I prefer a shoulder blade piece if it's not tooooo fatty, for juicyness and flavor.
Well, I don't actually do pork roasts anymore, as I do a stovetop thing, porchetta alla perugina, which sounds not entirely unlike Roberta's recipe in some ways.

I seem to remember it calls for a regular loin and I use a blade cut.

Anyway, if anyone is interested -
http://able2know.org/topic/8605-1

Adding if anyone tries this in a pot on the top of the stove with a long loin cut, I'd cut that in half, and put both halves in the pot, otherwise it'll have to curl in the pot and will be hard to turn, etc. The blade roast is just simpler.

Oh, and I wouldn't worry about mortaring all those herbs into a paste.. just break 'em up some.

Just curious. Have any of you actually used lemon leaves in your cooking? (Don't laugh!) I ask because the other day I had a recipe which called for kaffir lime leaves & couldn't get my hands on any. Which made me think: limes are rather like lemons, so why not use lemon leaves as a substitute?
After a bit of Googling, I eliminated the kaffir lime leaves (or possible substitute/s) from the recipe altogether, because the information I found was conflicting - some said never to use lemon leaves in cooking & certainly not to eat them! (I wasn't planning on doing that! ) ... others suggested using lemon leaves as a wraps for cooking some foods. Then there was the information (below) suggesting they could be used as a substitute for kaffir lime leaves. Hmmm ...

Anyway, rather than possibly stuff up a perfectly good recipe, I left them out, as I said. But I'm still curious. Have any of you used lemon leaves as a flavouring in your cooking? If so, in what sorts of recipes?


kaffir lime leaf = makroot leaf = makrut lime leaf = magrood leaf =daun jeruk purut = daun limau purut = bai



makrut = Indonesian lime leaves Notes: A kaffir lime leaf look as if two glossy, dark green leaves were joined together end to end, forming a figure-eight pattern. Most Thai recipes count each double leaf as two separate leaves. Frozen kaffir lime leaves are a good substitute for fresh. Dried leaves are much less flavorful, so use twice as many as the recipe calls for if you're substituting them for fresh leaves. Substitutes: lime leaves OR kaffir lime (One tablespoon of zest from a kaffir lime is equivalent to about 6 kaffir lime leaves.) OR lime zest (One tablespoon of zest from a lime is equivalent to about 6 kaffir lime leaves.) OR lemon leaves OR lemons (One tablespoon of zest from a lemon is equivalent to about 6 kaffir lime leaves.)

http://www.foodsubs.com/HerbsAsian.html

Good question!

I've had lemon leaves, having had lemon trees, meyer lemon and eureka lemon, and never used them in cooking. I've never seen a kaffir lime leaf, much less a whole tree with them.

The only kaffir lime leaves I've gotten my hands on, osso, are the bought variety, generally from my local Indian groceries & spices shop. I just thought, with lemon trees so common around the place .... ?
I have a very leafy mandarin tree growing in my yard. No chemicals used on it, ever. Now I'm wondering about mandarin leaves, too!

Well, I hope someone who knows more than we do shows up - as I can't figure why mandarin or lemon or kumquat or any other citrus leaf would be somehow bad... though I suppose young leaves of any would be best. (Or is that wrong too?)

BTW, lemongrass was suggested, on a couple of sites, as a substitute for kaffir lime leaves. And as it was already an ingredient in the recipe, I simply used a bit more.

This weekend, I encountered two excellent uses of ginger that I'd like to record here. I'm sorry I can't describe the production in detail how they did it because I'm not much of a cook myself. (I encountered them in a restaurant and an ice cream parlor.) But the ideas were so good that I want to submit them here for you cooks to play around with.

First use (found in a place called Veggie Planet on Harvard Square in Cambridge): Take ginger, mint, and red beets. Hash them in a mixer, and chill the result. This gives you a spicy, cold, gazpacho-ish soup. Just the refreshment I needed on this sizzling summer day.

Second use (eaten just across the street from Veggie Planet in an ice cream parlor called Lizzy's): Ginger ice cream. Take the same basic creamy substance you would normally make vanilla ice cream with, but without the vanilla. Instead, grind fresh ginger and add that. From this point on, continue just as you would if you made vanilla ice cream. The taste is surprising and super-delicious.

Not 100% sure about the first one, Thomas. I'd have to try it to know for certain. It certainly sounds very colourful!
But ginger ice cream definitely appeals. I love ice cream/gelato with chili & chocolate, so why not ice cream with ginger, too? Makes perfect sense to me!

Well, it was mostly red beets of course. The ginger and the mint were just flavor. Yes, it was very colorful, and it was a pretty color, too.

So rather like a thick, chilled health drink, Thomas? I could go with that!

I had a drink in DC recently that was made with lemonade and a ginger liqueur. Lovely combination!

... except that it's served as a chilled soup. That's why I said "Gazpacho". Come to the US East coast, and I'll take you out there -- you'll like the place and the health-drink-ish soup!


Mmmmmmm ....

Now what a good idea, Thomas! It's a date. I'll start saving right now! Hmmmm ... I think I'll have enough $$$$ for the trip & the soup by around .... July, 2019. Put that in your diary, OK?