Budget Cuts: Rolled Stuffed Pork Loin

At $6.99 per pound, it's not a steal, but for some fine eating for a decent price, pork loin is a good place to start, and they're often on sale at our supermarket butcher counters. We usually cook it on the grill, searing it directly over the coals then moving it to the side so it can achieve maximum succulence.

Slice roast lengthwise through the middle, but not all the way through.

One way to assure juiciness in what can often be a rather dry cut of pork is to stuff it with something savory, whether a mixture of greens and herbs—a garlic pesto or kale stuffing would be awesome—or, what I've been doing lately, a variation on Dario Cecchini's treatment with garlic, fennel pollen, salt and rosemary.

Open like a book, then slice horizontally through the left side.

Prepping the roast for the stuffing process is extremely easy. The simplest method is to snip off the twine binding the roast, turn it so the short end is toward you, then slice it halfway through the long way, stopping before you slice all the way through. Open the roast like a book, slather it with your stuffing, then roll it up starting at the right-hand end. Using some butcher's twine (available at most markets), tie the roast in three or four places.

Repeat with right side, open flaps and spread with stuffing.

The other method is a little harder but gives a much more satisfying result. Slice and open the roast as above, then make a shallow slice down the center, again stopping before you go all the way through the roast. Then make a horizontal slice to the left from the center cut to the end, stopping before slicing it through. Repeat going from the center to the right side. Open these two flaps and you'll end up with a long slab of meat that you can slather with stuffing and roll up from one end to the other.

Roll up, tie and roast…easy!

Grilling takes close to an hour, and roasting it in the oven at 400° will take about the same amount of time. If you don't mind heating up your house by turning on the oven—I'm writing this in the middle of a very warm NW summer—a really great thing to do, which gives you an instant side dish, is to roast the meat on top of root vegetables, as in this recipe. I usually aim for an internal temperature of 125° to 130°, then remove it from the grill or the oven, cover it with aluminum foil and let it rest for fifteen to twenty minutes before slicing.

Here are some stuffings to try: Kale and Pine Nuts, Nettle Pesto. The stuffing pictured above is a cilantro pesto. Try it with green garlic, carrot top pesto, or a flavorful combination of greens and herbs.

Budget Cuts: Braised Beef Neck Roast

They used to be called "butcher's cuts" or "butcher's favorites" because they were the unglamorous, but often very tasty, cuts of meat that wouldn't sell in the case and that the butcher would take home to feed his family. Steaks, chops and big roasts were the grill-friendly, oven roast-able and far prettier cuts. Stew meat, fatty beef chuck or pork shoulder roasts were considered the bottom of the barrel, needing long, slow braising and mostly used to make chili or stews of various kinds.

Searing the neck roast.

Back in the day you'd never see flank steak, hanger steak, bavette or skirt steak in the meat case at the supermarket. But if you did, they'd be dirt cheap…and I mean a couple of dollars a pound at most. Sometime in the late 90s the meat industry realized that these cuts might be worth some money and started marketing them to chefs. A case in point was the "Denver steak" that, instead of being ground into hamburger and sold for $2.99 a pound, could be cooked like a steak and served to a restaurant patron for many times more. (See "Slicing Meat So You Pay More.")

So it is with some hesitation that I share my latest find, lest it become the next victim of the Denver steak syndrome.

Ready to go in the oven.

Neck meat, whether from a pig, lamb or cow, could be called the latest butcher's cut to garner space on restaurant menus. Sometimes lumped in with offal or thrown out as scrap, this bony cut has plenty of meat on it and becomes shreddy and tender with long, slow cooking. I first saw it a couple of months ago in the meat case at Old Salt Marketplace, a beautifully aged piece of grass-fed beef from Hawley Ranch that was priced at—get this—five bucks a pound.

Yes, I gasped, too.

Five hours later, bones removed…perfect!

Recently I brought home a four-pound hunk of neck, put it in the oven with a simple braising sauce and pulled it out five hours later—it could have been pulled out at three, but I wanted it at that seriously falling-apart stage—and served it to some pretty impressed guests. And there was enough left over to mix in with some pasta later in the week.

But please, could you do me a favor and keep this one quiet?

Braised Beef Neck Roast

3 Tbsp. vegetable oil
Salt and pepper
4 lbs. beef neck, bone in
1 onion, roughly chopped
4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 Tbsp. pimenton dulce or piment d'Espelette
1 Tbsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
2 c. red wine
3 c. roasted or canned tomatoes
A dozen or so oil-cured olives
2 bay leaves

Preheat oven to 325°.

Generously salt and pepper roast on all sides. Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat until it shimmers. Add roast and sear well on all surfaces. Remove from pan.

Add onions and garlic to fat in pan and sauté over medium heat until translucent, scraping up any browned bits from meat. Add pimenton and dried spices and stir into onions, then stir in wine, tomatoes, olives and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer and return the roast to the pan. Bring to a simmer, cover tightly and transfer to the oven. Roast for 3 to 5 hours, turning the roast every hour to make sure all sides are evenly cooked (if the roast is completely submerged in the braising liquid, don't worry about this step).

When the roast is done, you can skim off the fat floating on the surface with a spoon (optional). Tear off the meat remaining on the bone and remove the bones and the bay leaves from the liquid. Chop any large pieces of meat into smaller chunks and serve. Goes well with roasted root vegetables, sautéed greens and/or polenta. I also made a quick gremolata of the carrot greens processed with some garlic, lemon peel, salt and olive oil.

The Norman Chronicles: Neck and Neck

They're unofficially called "butcher's cuts," those not-so-frequently-seen-in-meat-cases pieces of lamb, beef or pork. Because they aren't big, gorgeous hunks of flesh, they were harder to sell and ended up going home with the butchers to feed their families, knowing as they did that these "off cuts" were often more flavorful than their more well-known compadres. Flank steak and hanger steak used to belong to that category until the beef association started promoting them, and now they'll often cost as much as steaks.

A cut that hasn't yet been popularized and, with any luck, will remain in the cheap-but-delicious category is lamb neck. This two-or-so-pound piece of meat is perfect for braising low and slow until the flesh is melting off the bone, and has enough heft flavor-wise to stand up to the richly flavorful Provençal-style sauce below. You can get one by ordering it from your favorite butcher or market that carries lamb, though it might mean the butcher's family will have to figure out something else for dinner.

Braised Lamb Neck Provençal

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lamb neck, about 2 lbs.
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
3 c. roasted tomatoes, chopped
1 c. dry white wine, such as sauvignon blanc
Zest of 1 lemon
1/8 tsp. saffron
1 tsp. salt
2 bay leaves
1/2 c. pitted oil-cured black olives or green olives, sliced*
2 lemons, cut in wedges

Preheat oven to 325°.

Heat oil in Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown neck on all sides. While lamb browns, put saffron and salt in mortar and pestle and grind until saffron is broken down. Remove browned neck to platter. Add onion and garlic to pan and sauté till translucent, scraping up browned bits of lamb. Add tomatoes, wine, lemon zest, saffron-salt mixture and bay leaves to pan and stir, then return lamb neck to pan. Cover pan with parchment paper and lid and braise in the oven for 2 1/2 hrs., turning the neck every 45 min. or so.

Add chopped olives and lemons to pan and continue cooking another 45 min. until meat is falling off the bone. Serve over polenta.

* I used Spanish anchovy-stuffed olives, which added that touch of umami from the anchovies. Yum!

Read the other posts in The Norman Chronicles: Getting to Shepherd's Pie, Braising Saddles and Shanks and Hearts.

Budget Cuts: Moroccan…Ish?

I love dinner parties. Going to them, having them. But not those large affairs you see in the movies where the hostess devises a clever seating plan and places Mr. X near Ms. Y to watch the sparks fly.

My ideal dinner party numbers four to six total, not just because of the size of our dining table (which has accommodated 12 in a pinch) but because the point, for me, is good conversation. And since our friends have no trouble coming up with interesting things to say (even if it's at the top of their lungs), that part is easy. The trickier part is figuring out what to feed them.

It seems everyone these days has dietary restrictions, allergies or sensitivities. Add to that individual likes and dislikes, multiply by the number of guests and you've got a problem of algorithmic proportions.

And not to get all "every cloud has a silver lining" on you, but when a recent invitee expressed a reluctance about lamb, my plans for a Moroccan tagine featuring that meat had to be modified on the fly. It led me to investigate substituting pork for the lamb shoulder called for in the recipe, and since one of my new favorite budget cuts, pork leg roast, was on sale that week, I snapped it up.

The pork turned out to be a genius choice, with its inclination to fall apart but not dissolve with slow braising. Its hefty texture and mild flavor would meld with, rather than overwhelm, the fruit and rich spices of the dish. And nothing makes arriving guests start drooling quicker than the aroma of those spices simmering away for a few hours. Throw in a couple of bottles of red wine to grease the wheels, and the job of hosting is a no-brainer.

Pork Tagine with Pistachios, Almonds, Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins
Adapted from Rice Pasta Couscousby Jeff Koehler

3-4 lbs. pork leg or pork shoulder
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 lg. onion, chopped
1 3" piece cinnamon stick
20 saffron threads
4 whole cloves
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground turmeric
1 1/2 Tbsp. tomato paste
1 lg. carrot, diced
1 lg. turnip, diced
6 c. water
1/4 c. golden raisins
2 Tbsp. butter or margarine
1/4 c. slivered almonds
1/4 c. pine nuts
1/4 c. shelled pistachios
Harissa

Preheat oven to 300°.

Season pork with salt and pepper, cut in large chunks. Heat oil in large oven-proof pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and lamb and cook, stirring frequently, until the pork is browned and the onion is soft, about 10 minutes. Add the cinnamon, cloves, ginger, turmeric and tomato paste and mix in with the lamb. Add the carrots and turnips and cover with water. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat, cover and place in oven. Cook 3-4 hours. Break up pork into smaller chunks before serving.

While pork cooks, soak the raisins in lukewarm water for 15 minutes, drain. In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter or margarine. Add the almonds, pine nuts, pistachios and raisins and cook, stirring frequently, until the nuts are browned and the raisins plump, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a bowl to cool.

To serve, mound couscous (recipe below) on a large platter. Using a slotted spoon, remove the pork and vegetables and place on top of the couscous. Scatter nut and raisin mixture over top. Tent platter with foil to keep it warm. Strain the broth remaining (optional) and adjust seasoning, adding harissa a bit at a time (if desired). Serve remaining broth in a pitcher with a dish of harissa on the side.

Baked Couscous
Adapted from Rice Pasta Couscousby Jeff Koehler

1 tsp. salt
2 1/2 c. warm water
1 lb. couscous (about 2 1/2 c.)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter or margarine

Preheat oven to 350°. Dissolve the salt in the water. Pour the couscous into a 9" by 12" baking dish and dribble the warm salty water over it. Mix with a fork. let sit without disturbing for 10 minutes. Drizzle in the oil. Toss with both hands, lifting the grains and letting them fall through your fingers. Work out any clumps by rubbing your palms together, letting the grains drop into the dish. Transfer the couscous to an ovenproof baking dish and bake, turning the grains over from time to time, until steamy warm, 10 to 15 minutes. Work in the butter. Fluff with a fork before piling the couscous onto a platter.

Look for other recipes in the Budget Cuts series: Stuffed Pork Leg Roast with Kale and Pine Nuts;  Chile-Marinated Pork Shoulder; Grilled London Broil; Pork Leg Roast with Lemon and Prosciutto Stuffing and Roasted Vegetables.

Budget Cuts: Jolly Good!

A friend once described me as a geographic void. That's because I've never been able to remember if Kentucky is north or south of Tennessee, or the order of those teeny tiny states on the Eastern seaboard. And let's not even bring up the Midwest, okay?

I have the same problem with cuts of meat. Yes, I've seen (and even tried to memorize) that diagram of the cow that looks like a map, with the state of flank in a perpetual border dispute with brisket, and top and bottom round arguing over positions at the negotiating table.

But I've learned that no matter where they're located, the best way to learn about cuts of meat is to eat them. Which is how we discovered the top round (often referred to as London Broil, which is actually a preparation, not a cut of meat), beautiful red hunks of meat more than an inch thick sitting right next to the steaks in the meat case.

It's a very lean cut, with almost no marbling, and the price, usually below $4 a pound, made me leery of its ability to perform on the grill. But since Dave was in the mood to 'cue and the week's grocery budget was a little thin, we decided to give it a try.

And we're so glad we did. A hot fire, about eight minutes over the coals with only salt and pepper as seasoning, and this baby was good enough for company. The flavor reminds me of hanger steak, with a deep, beefy taste, and the texture is tender enough to cut with a table knife, dense without being tough, and even though it's not fatty it has plenty of juice.

So if you want to venture outside your usual boundaries and have some good meat without busting your (very) local economy, give the top round a try. Who knows where the journey might lead?

Look for other recipes in the Budget Cuts series: Stuffed Pork Leg Roast with Kale and Pine Nuts;  Chile-Marinated Pork Shoulder; Pork Tagine with Pistachios, Almonds, Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins and Pork Leg Roast with Lemon and Prosciutto Stuffing and Roasted Vegetables.

Budget Cuts: A Roast Less Traveled

Ruts, like the ones that gradually wear into the roadways from thousands of vehicles, are so easy to get into and so hard to get out of.

Making meals, if you have to do it on a daily basis, can be like that, too. Paging through my cookbooks or going online seems like too much of a hassle when it's so easy to pull out a standby, the good old go-to recipes I can practically make in my sleep.

I'd hauled a pork shoulder out of the freezer to thaw when the subject of dinner came up in a chat with my neighbor. The subject of our conversations is often food and, as a fabulous cook and teacher at the local culinary school, she suggested roasting it with a rub. Now, to me, pork shoulder is perfect for braising, especially with the spices of Mexico.

The shoulder, happily marinating away.

But a rub...that intrigued me. I had some dried ancho chiles in the pantry along with some cocoa nibs, so I decided to go for a variation on the Pollo Asado con Chipotle from my article on Por Que No taqueria.

A couple of hours of marinating, turning it once or twice to make sure it was absorbing all of that chile goodness, a little time in the oven and we had a main course that would go with any number of sides from saffron rice to braised greens. Plus the leftovers made some amazing sandwiches and would have been great chopped and refried for pork tacos.

And it showed me once again that those side trips off the main highway are so worth taking!

Chile-marinated Pork Shoulder

3-4 lb. pork shoulder
4 dried ancho chiles
1 dried hot red chile or chipotle chile
1 Tbsp. cocoa nibs (optional)
4 cloves garlic
1 tsp. salt
1/3 c. vegetable oil

Place pork shoulder in a heavy-duty self-sealing plastic bag or large mixing bowl. Place chiles and cocoa nibs in the blender until they are coarsely ground. Add garlic, salt and vegetable oil and blend till it becomes a thick slurry. Pour over meat and massage in bag or turn in bowl until it is well coated. Marinate 2 hours or up to overnight in the refrigerator. Remove meat from marinade and cook over indirect heat on a charcoal grill or in a roasting pan in a 350° oven until it reaches an internal temperature of 130° on an instant-read thermometer. Place on carving board, cover and allow to rest for 15 minutes. Slice and serve.

Look for other recipes in the Budget Cuts series: Stuffed Pork Leg Roast with Kale and Pine Nuts;  Grilled London Broil; Pork Tagine with Pistachios, Almonds, Pine Nuts and Golden Raisins and Pork Leg Roast with Prosciutto and Lemon Stuffing with Roasted Vegetables.