Earl Grey Pork Roast

I decided to post this recipe again because my original posting shared the recipe with a side dish and did not make the roast pork the centerpiece of the post. It deserves to be, as I make it so often.

The recipe is beyond simple. Preheat the oven to 450°.

While it is heating, open up 4 or 5 bags of Earl Grey Tea and dump them in the roasting pan. Add some salt and pepper and mix with your fingers. Now roll the roast around in the mixture, making sure to coat it everywhere.

If it’s a lean roast like a loin, you can just leave it right there on the bottom of the pan. If it’s a fatty roast like this shoulder roast, put it in a rack so the drippings fall to the bottom of the pan. Stick it in the oven to roast.

It will take about 30 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of your roast. Use a meat thermometer and remove as soon as it reaches 140°. This will give a you a beautiful pink, tender, and juicy roast. Let it rest a good 10 to 15 minutes before you cut. This lets it cook a bit more and ensures that all the juice does not run out.

This is good with salads, sandwiches or just about anything you can think of. The tea’s flavor and aroma permeate the meat. It is hard to describe how good this is.

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Roast Pork with Cabbage Slaw Sandwich

I love sandwiches, but don’t buy bread that often. However, I got a few loaves of Dave’s Killer Bread Good Seed bread and having been trying it out. It is a sweet, moist bread filled with all sorts of seeds as you can see in the picture. Being on the sweet side makes it tricky, because you want to counter that sweetness. i have found the perfect sandwich to make with it though, using a sweet/sour cabbage slaw that has a tart brightness that balances perfectly.

I made a nice big batch of cabbage slaw, enough for a few lunches and several sandwiches. I cut up a small head of green cabbage in thin strips, leaving out the core. As I cut the cabbage, I lightly salted it and let it rest to release some of the liquid. About an hour later, I poured off the liquid and squeezed the cabbage. I diced one small red onion and added it to the cabbage. Then I made a dressing of 1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar and 2 TBSP of sugar. I adde some salt and pepper, stirred it up and poured it on the slaw. Then I sprinkled a teaspoon of celery seed on top, put a lid on it and gave it a good shake. Pro-tip: make sure that lid is nice and secure because even the slightest gap will send some of that vinegar heading directly for your eye. After it’s mixed up. Let it rest for a couple hours so the cabbage soaks up that sweet and sour vinegary yumminess.

I had roasted an pork roast coated in Earl Grey tea the day before and cut a few slices off the roast for the salad. I  took two slices of bread, spread some mayo on it, added a nice layer of cabbage slaw, a couple slices of the roast pork and topped with with the other slice of bread. Wow! The aromatic flavor of the pork and the sweet and sour slaw are a great combination, which I already knew. On the bread, though, it was really a revelation in how balancing flavors can enhance them. That bread was good before, but now it was excellent when it had that slaw as a foil to balance its sweetness.

Earl Grey’s Roast Pork with Root Vegetables

Winco had roast pork for $1.66 per pound, so it seemed like a good time for pork roast. While trying to decide what to serve with it, I came across a recipe for Earl Grey-Crusted Pork Loin with Fennel and Apples. I didn’t have a pork tenderloin and wanted to use some dried cherries, not fresh apples. I like raw apples better than roasted ones, but I thought the recipe gave me something to work with.

I preheated the oven to 450°. I cut one small yellow onion in slices and lined the bottom of my paella pan which doubles as a roaster for me. I cut the tops off four Earl Grey tea bags and poured them out onto my cutting board. I added 1 tsp of salt and a tsp of pepper and mixed them together and then I rolled my pork roast in it. It was a three pound roast and was completely coated by the tea, salt and pepper blend. I have never seen anything stick so completely or so well as this tea, it was much easier than doing a pepper coating.

I stuck the roast in the oven and let it cook at 450 for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, I peeled and cut 1 yam, 1 turnip and 2 red potatoes into chunks about 1 inch square or so.

Now it was time to take the roast out and add the vegetables. I added  1 TBSP of olive oil to a small bowl, added some salt and pepper and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. Then a handful at a time, I tossed the root vegetables in the oil to coat them and then spooned them into the pan around the roast. I added a handful of dried cherries at the end, putting them into the oil, salt and pepper first as well.

I put the roast back in the oven at 350° for 40 minutes. I checked the temp and it was 140° which is what I wanted. I removed the roast to rest for 15 minutes and put the veggies back in to finish cooking. I turned it up to broil for the last 5 minutes just to get a nice dark brown crispiness on a few of them.

The vegetables were magnificent as roast vegetables always are. The juice from the onions and the pork blended with the dried cherries for a delicious liquid that the vegetables drank up. The real revelation, though, was the pork. The Earl Grey’s sweet and tart bergamot flavor permeated the meat, but with delicacy so it was not overwhelming at all. it was extraordinary, so delicious and so fragrant. I will definitely make this again. After all, it turned a $1.66 per pound cheap roast into something fit for fine dining.

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