Herb Oil Rubbed Pork Roast with Carrots and Potatoes

We decided that we needed to cook tonight, so we went to the store to see what was on sale. This is part of a 3 1/2 lb bone-in sirloin pork loin roast. It was only $13. Meat sales are really the best.  This took about 20 minutes of prep and 2 hours to cook. It is tender and juicy and flavorful.  The potatoes and carrots were also amazing - likely because they were soaked in the herb oil rub and crispy on the bottom.  We all loved this and so did Hazel!

This dish uses a cutting board (with a wash in between) and one dish and a few knives. Pretty easy clean-up too!

Ingredients:
1 bone-in pork loin sirloin roast
1/4 C olive oil
1 T butter, melted
1 T herbs de Provence
1/2 T thyme
1/2 T rosemary
salt
pepper
6 cloves garlic (I used 3 of the largest garlic slices ever), minced
1/2 onion, sliced
3 white potatoes, medium dice
3 carrots, medium dice

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375. Place the onion slices on a rimmed baking sheet to hold the pork up from the bottom.
2. Prepare the herb butter by combining oil, melted butter, garlic and all the herbs. Stir.
3. Place the pork on the onion slices and rub all over with salt and pepper. Rub the herb-oil onto the pork and let it drip onto the tray
4. Tent the pork with foil and put it into the oven for one hour
5. After an hour, add the potatoes and carrots along the edges and sprinkle them with salt
6. When the pork reaches 145 degrees, remove it from the oven and set it on a cutting board to rest.
7. Increase the oven temperature to 400 and cook the potatoes and carrots 15 minutes longer.
8. Slice the pork and serve with carrots and potatoes. The onions on the bottom are also pretty delicious.

Carrots

Carrots are one of my favorite versatile vegetables. They are good raw, they are good with a dash of salt, they are good with a bit of lime, they are good with their peel on or off, they are good roasted, they taste nice in butter sauce, they're great. The other great thing about carrots is that they're really cheap and they offer lots of nutritional benefits.

The other great thing about carrots is that they are sometimes found in desserts! How crazy is that am I right? Carrot Cake is so sweet you can't imagine that it has anything that could be good for you (although just to clarify, carrot cake is NOT good for you, just the carrots are)

Hungry for a little crunch? Carrots. Hungry for a little roasted flavor? Carrots.

Add Carrots to your next meal--weather roasted, steamed, pureed or plain they will add some color to your meat and potatoes.

Lamb & Carrot Curry

Last night I purchased 5 lamb shanks for $10. I thought it was a pretty good deal for lamb. Little did I know you are supposed to use lamb shanks in slow-cooked recipes because they are tough and fatty. However, I didn't do that. I grilled 2 shanks and they were not tough but instead delicious.

And what to do with the rest? Today I chopped two up into little pieces and made some quick and easy curry! I highly recommend this recipe. It is quick, easy, and you probably have most of the ingredients in your cupboard!

Lamb & Carrot Curry (serves 2 only, maybe 1 very hungry individual)
Ingredients
2 lamb shanks, trimmed and cut into small chunks
1 14oz can coconut milk
1/2 to 1 Tablespoon Thai red curry paste
1/3 cup chicken stock (for some reason they only had chicken broth so I used that)
handful of multicolored baby carrots (or two regular carrots coined)
dash Worcestershire sauce
dash soy sauce
1 T brown sugar
cooked rice for serving

Directions
1. Bring coconut milk and curry paste to a simmer in a large saucepan. Simmer 5 minutes.
2. Add all other ingredients except rice. Simmer for 10-15 minutes until carrots are tender and lamb is cooked through
3. Serve warm over rice. Curry will be slightly thickened.

Grilled Lamb and Roasted Carrots

It is spring here in SoCal and as a result the Farmer's Market is brimming with fun vegetables to try. Last weekend, I was browsing the Ojai market and saw some beautiful carrots. Not just orange carrots but also red and yellow. In hindsight, I probably should've chosen a plate that was not yellow so you could get the full effect of the colorful carrots but man they looked great and tasted better.

Easter is also right around the corner so lamb was on my mind. If you are afraid of flames, don't grill lamb steaks! The flames were jumping like frogs!

There is no recipe for this meal really. Grill Lamb steaks 4-5 minutes per side (but a nice herb rub would really be something with these), serve warm.

For the carrots, cut off the stems and wash carrots. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast 10-15 minutes depending on the size of your carrots--mine were small so 15 minutes was a little long. The carrots will be sweater once cooked.