Thursday, August 14, 2014

Blog Worthy - Chipotle Pig with Cilantro Rice (3WW ppv + 4 WW ppv)

"Oh yeah, that one's blog worthy!"  Six words I love to hear at my dinner table.  
It happened tonight - and wouldn't you know, no photos were taken until we were cleaning up. So what you see here is the aftermath.  And trust me, great a great salad or sandwich will follow tomorrow.
Better late than never - Chipotle Pig
with Cilantro Rice leftovers...

In case you don't know, we live in the land of the pig.  Pork is a big deal in these parts.  And luck for us, there are some pretty healthy ways to serve up a nice lean pork roast. 

Just such a thing happened tonight.  But first, let's rewind to lunch time....

I worked from home today, which often means spending the entire day at "my duty station," as a colleague of mine used to say.  Today, I had to take a break.  So at lunch time, while I was making a salad, I was also throwing together a marinade for a pork sirloin roast I bought earlier this week. 

Pretty easy stuff, just stash a 1.5 pound pork roast in a big zip lock bag along with herbs, spices, a bit of oil and an acid.  In this case:

  • 1 1/2 TBS smoked paprika
  • 1 1/2  chipoltle chile powder
  • 1 TBS garlic powder,
  • A big fat pinch of Kosher salt
  • About a 1/4 cup olive oil 
  • About 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar 

Then into the fridge and back to work.

Fast forward to dinner time.....

As the evening wound down, Steve fired up a screaming hot grill.  I dried off the marinade from the roast, seasoned it up with salt and pepper, drizzled senor pig with olive oil and out to the deck we went.

Time to Grill:

  • First Steve seared all four sides of the roast two times each
  • Then he turned off the burners in the center of the grill, and turned the outer ones down to medium
  • He centered the roast in the center of the grill, over the "off" burners
  • And he cooked until "done" - 15 minutes on each side (probably about 30 minutes total) and when the instant read thermometer read 130 degrees F.  
  • Then into the house, tented loosely with foil. And it rested for a good 20 minutes. Yes, rare pig police, it continued to cook as it rested and was a perfect medium done, juicy and oh so good.
While the roast was resting, I made up a nice batch of fluffy white jasmine rice.  And when it was done, I stirred in a pat of butter, about 1/8 cup of finely diced Vadilia onion, a big ol' pile of chopped cilantro (probably close to 3/4 to a full cup) and some salt and pepper.  I stirred it all up in a bowl to keep it fluffy.

We served it all up with sliced heirloom tomatoes from Funny Girl Farm.  

And yes, it was definitely blog worthy.

(Roast = 3ppv for 3 oz and cilantro rice = 4ppv for 1/2 cup. Sliced Tomato = 0)