Pork Roast

In my family, pork roast was for special occasions. You would have it for Easter, the second day of Christmas, for special dinners.
And the leftovers would be eaten on thick slices of bread with the jelly from the baking process.
My mom used to do it differently than I do, I recall it being a bit spicy, which means there was a lot of pepper and marjoram.

It was good, trust me. But best the next day. Like roast chicken. Same thing.
Since I didn't have the recipe and I wanted to recreate the pork roast , I had to try to figure out what was it there. Of course, I came up with something totally different in taste, but still good.
And it's a very versatile dish, with the leftovers you can make sandwiches, or rice/pasta dishes with the leftovers cut up.
There are a few methods of making this: if you like garlic, then jab the pork with a sharp thin knige, making deep pockets in which you can push in the garlic. Or you can mince the garlic and cover the pork with it, with salt and pepper. You can also skip the garlic, and use herbs all over the meat. Fresh herbs, like sage, can be put over the meat when baking to give a wonderful aroma. Rosemary twigs put into forementioned deep pockets. You can even get some prosciutto or some thin cure bacon slices and cover it up.
But don't use butter for the meat, and don't forget to fry the meat on each side before putting the pork roast in the oven.This will seal the juices inside the meat, making it very tender and juicy.
And, like handling any meat after thermal process, before cutting and serving, leave on a cutting board to rest for a while.

I've tried making pork roast in a pan, covered with foil, in a foil bag ( Jan Niezbędny sleeve), in a casserol dish, and I highly recommend the sleeve and the casserol dish.

So how to do it?
Buy a nice 0,5kg piece of pork roast without bones, and try to get one that doesn't have a lot of the silverish skin, as we will cut it off anyway. And fatty bits are ok, they will melt out.
Since we are roasting in a closed dish, why not peel a few veggies to give extra aroma and will be a great side dish (from a one dish meal :)) . I usually peel a few potatoes, add at least 3-4 carrots (they always dissapear at once), some parsnip and parsley. And more garlic. I have a thing for garlic. If you have those small cipolina/cipoletti onions, clean them and throw them in too. They will be scrumptious after they finish baking.
Prepare your meat, best by a night of marinating. Rinse the meat under cold water, pat dry with a paper towel, and place on a board. If you plan on the garlic or rosemary pockets, do it now. Pour about a teaspoon of good olive oil on the meat, and massage it in. The massaging at this point will losen up the meat, making it less tough. Just a bit, it doesn't work on the meat like it does on us :)
Now sprinkle some salt and pepper over the meat, rub that in too, and if you're going with a dried herb version, rub that all over too. I often used dried mint and crushed green peppercorns.  If you are using fresh sage, then stick leaf by leaf on the bottom of the meat. As for the bacon wrap, you wrap it all around the meat, but you won't fry the meat then, before baking.
Once you're done with the seasoning, place the pork gently in a glass or ceramic bowl, cover with a plate and put in the fridge for at least 5h for the marinating process.
Btw, you can also marinate the meat in the same red vinegar marinade I posted a while back.
Baking time: around 40-60 min. In a sleeve, it usually takes 40 min. In a casserole dish, 50-60 min.
Preheat the oven to 180C.
Take out the meat about 30min before the baking/ frying. Cold meat take longer to cook.
Put the veggies in the dish you will use to bake the pork, nest it around, pour in half a cup of water, and a bit of olive oil. Season a bit with salt and pepper.
Heat up a large frying pan on high heat. There's some searing to be done. When it's hot, turn your ventilation on, and put the meat on the pan. It's going to sizzle, but that's ok. Turn on all sides to seal the juices inside the meat (the meat will be browned), then transfer to the dish with veggies. Close it up and put in the oven to bake for the estimated time, depending on the dish you used.
If you decided to do the meat with bacon, or anything else that prevented you from the frying part, at the end of the baking time, turn on the broiler and take off the lid ( cut open the sleeve) and let it brown for 5-8 min.
Let the meat rest a bit ( 3-5 min), before cutting, and serve.
This is a recipe for just meat, if you like serving meat with sauce, then a light brown will do, or a bernaise sauce, regular dijon mustard works great too.