Rosemary, Maple & Mustard Pork

Rosemary is one of my favorite herbs, yet for a long time the only thing I ever combined it with was roasted baby red skin potatoes. Until this summer, when a friend started giving me lots of fresh rosemary from her garden.

The herb goes really well with other vegetables, too, as in Fresh Corn & Rosemary Basil Pesto.

Now that fall has arrived, it seemed fitting to use rosemary to flavor a pork roast for dinner. You probably already have everything else you need to make this marinade and sauce: olive oil, maple syrup and mustard are blended with the rosemary.

To me, this combination of flavors truly tastes like fall.

Mangia! Mangia!
Andrea

Rosemary, Maple & Mustard Pork
Inspired by this recipe from Eating Well

1 2-3 pound pork roast or pork loin roast
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons spicy brown mustard

Prick pork roast all over with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.

In a small bowl, mix together olive oil, rosemary, maple syrup and mustard.

Lightly coat a roasting pan with cooking spray. Place pork roast in pan. Pour about half of the sauce on top of the pork roast. Cover and refrigerate 2 hours to overnight.

Set aside the rest of the sauce and keep at room temperature.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place roasting pan in oven. Cook for about 1 hour, or until pork is no longer pink inside.

Remove from oven and let sit for 10 minutes. If your roast is wrapped in a string net, remove string, then slice pork roast. Top with remaining sauce.

London Broil

When the weather starts getting nice, I typically send the husband out to the grill when I want beef for dinner. (Thanks for being the grill master, honey!) But some days it's rainy. Or neither of us is in the mood to grill. Or I'm just looking for a change of pace.

And that's when I turn to the broiler.

A quick hit of high heat from the broiler caramelizes the exterior of your London broil while leaving the interior rosy pink. And doesn't it seem appropriate to cook London BROIL in the BROIL-er? Yeah, I thought so, too.

One last tip. London broil can be a tougher cut of beef. Cooking the meat to medium-rare or medium, letting it rest for 10 minutes before serving, and slicing it thinly across the grain helps to make sure each serving is perfectly tender.

Let's get cooking!
Erin

London Broil
Serves: 3-4

1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon Worcestershire
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
Pepper to taste
1 pound London broil*

Whisk together oil, vinegar, lemon juice, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, onion powder, and pepper. Set aside.

Use a sharp knife to score both sides of the London broil in a diamond pattern. (Scoring just means making shallow cuts in the meat. I think this helps the marinade absorb better. But mostly I just do it because that's what my mom did. Seems a good enough reason to me.) Place meat in a shallow baking dish or a Ziploc baggie. Pour the marinade over the meat and turn to coat. Cover the dish or seal the baggie and place in the refrigerator for a couple hours or up to overnight. Remove from the fridge about 30 minutes before you're ready to cook so it comes to room temperature.

Adjust an oven rack so it's about 4" from the broiler element. Heat the broiler to high. Place the meat on a broiler-safe baking sheet (not glass!) and place under the broiler for 5-6 minutes per side, until the meat reaches an internal temperature of 120 degrees for medium rare. Tent with foil and allow to rest for 10 minutes. (This will allow the juices to redistribute and the meat to come up to temperature another 5-10 degrees.) Thinly slice the London broil against the grain and serve.

*They sell a cut of beef called "London broil" at my grocery store. If you don't see it at the butcher counter, try using flank steak instead.