Excite Your Dinner and Enter The Contest: Mango Curry Roast Pork

Today I finally got a chance to use the first of my VH sauces to excite my dinner. You may have read my last post which talks about the goodies I received in the mail that contained some neat prizes and the jars of VH sauces to try. I am to use them to 'Excite My Dinner' and tell the world what I think about them. They even gave me a fancy disclosure statement to post that goes a little something like this:

"Disclosure - I am participating in the VH Excite Your Dinner 

blog tour by enCompass Media on behalf of Con Agra Foods. I 

received compensation as a thank you for participating and for 

sharing my honest opinion."

What did I make for dinner you ask? I used the mango curry to coat a pork loin roast before slipping it into the oven to roast. It was an easy peasy way to add some new flavour to Sunday supper. Here's what I did:

Thickly slice half an onion and line the roasting pan. This will give a flavourful platform for the roast to sit on.

Using a large bowl to contain the roast, put a couple of heaping spoonfuls of VH Mango Curry onto the roast.

Get your hands messy and rub that sauce all over. Make sure every part of the roast is coated.

Place the roast on top of the sliced onions and add at least half a cup of 

water to the bottom of the pan. This will keep things from burning to the bottom

of the pan. This is a good time to insert a thermometer to help judge the 

doneness of the roast.

 

Part way through roasting, take the foil off and spoon some more Mango curry sauce over the roast. 

Continue roasting until cooked through.

 Allow the roast to rest for 15 minutes before slicing. I served the roast 

with steamed veggies and it made a very tasty dinner. The Boy, of course, 

made a sandwich with his Mango Curry roast pork and he thoroughly 

enjoyed it. VH's Mango Curry sauce is a sweet curry sauce with a faint mango

 taste to it.  It is quite nice because the curry is not overpowering. It is a well 

balanced sauce that combined very nicely with the pork loin. This is saying a lot 

because we are not generally a curry loving family. This was a bit of a surprise 

that  everyone enjoyed it.

There are a few things I do find a bit unsettling about this VH sauce. One of 

them is the salt content.(This is a big reason why I don't usually use premade 

sauces). A 1/2 cup of sauce has 680mg of Sodium in it. Now I know that

realistically, especially using it on a roast, I am not eating a full 1/2 cup of sauce

 but if I were serving extra sauce over rice this would concern me even more. If that were

 the case, I would also be concerned about the 230 calories per 1/2 cup. This is my

second concern. There are people out there who will eat more than that amount

 in a sitting. Once again, I return the realistic side. I'm not using these sauces 

everyday so once in a while, why not. I can see using this VH Mango Curry sauce with

chicken and veggies in a crock pot for a quick winter stew to serve over rice or

 even on some chicken wings.

My next sauce to try is the Korean BBQ! Any suggestions?

Please remember to enter the giveaway below for your chance to win a $25 VH 

prize pack!! It is just as easy peasy as this roast pork was. Go to theVH Facebook

page or the VH website, check our their sauces, leave a comment here telling

me what sauce you would like to try.  Do it. Contest ends Oct 26, 2012 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Until next time, stay warm and eat well. 

Sandwiches Make Everything Better

We had a tough morning. We drove out to the beloved Little Cabin in the Woods to collect some items to bring home.  You see, my Dad sold his share of the cabin to his brother in law so we are unable to go out there this summer. This was just plain tough for us as we do love that little piece of paradise so much. (We took the canoe to the neighbours so we can still drive out, visit, and go for a canoe ride!) After the drive home, the Boy worked on some homework, hubby had a nap, and I went to the grocery store. To be quite honest, I know we were all feeling a little down.

After some thinking and wondering around, I decided on a menu for a dinner that just might cheer us up.  The plan involved the Boy and I working in the Little Kitchen together and since that is always fun, I figured I'd give it a go!

Rewind to last year when we were in St. Louis,MO on a baseball related trip, we watched a lot of Food Network's Next Food Network Star.  We don't get the American FN shows until about a year after they air in the States but we really liked Jeff Mauro and the fact that he won.  Unfortunately, we had to wait until this year to start getting his show, 'Sandwich King'.  We PVR the show and watch it together and love to see what sandwich he is going to make next. (Long time readers may remember that the Boy is quite the Sandwich hound).

Okay, I know I am rambling on now so to make a long story short, I picked up the ingredients to make Schnitzel Biscuits! The recipe on that link has great instructions so I am not going to re write it but trust me...this is tasty! We followed the recipe for the pork to a T! We even brined the pork tenderloin...don't skip that, it is fabulous!

While the pork was resting in the fridge in its brine, I made my favourite buttermilk biscuit recipe to go with the schnitzel. If you have a go to biscuit recipe, use it. I did make some braised cabbage, but I did not follow Jeff's recipe too closely.  I used already shredded cabbage from a cole slaw mix and halved the recipe. (Also left out the caraway seeds).

I now present to you, Schnitzel prep, in photo form!  After the Boy brined and patted dry pork tenderloin,  he cut it into 8 portions that he then pounded thin...I think that was his favourite part!

Get those frustrations out!!

Put the pork between 2 pieces of plastic wrap and gently pound

We only had to pause once to glue the mallet back together...we will be investing in a nicer one!

The Boy set up his breading station and kept on working!

Ready for the pan!

The Boy seems to have the patience to wait long enough for the perect golden brown!

Let me tell you, the sweet acidity of the braised cabbage really does make the schnitzel biscuit a fantastic sandwich. It cuts through the butteryness of the biscuit and the pork and just makes this sammy oh so delicious!

I couldn't even take the pictures with the Boy trying to gobble up these sammies! I don't blame him one little bit...they were just that fabulous!

Cooking with the Boy this evening really helped cheer us up. Some time together in the kitchen was just what we needed!

Until next time, stay warm and eat well!

Slowin' it down with the slow cooker

Slow cooker pulled pork
Click here for a printable version

 First we need to make the dry rub.  This dry rub is very versatile as you can change up the mixture of seasonings to suit your taste.  This rub is adapted slightly from Alton Brown's version which can be found in his book "Good Eats the early Years".  He changed it somewhat from the show he originally aired.  As a ratio, the rub is basically 6:1:1:1. (All in tbsp)

• 6 tbsp light brown sugar, firmly packed
• 1 tbsp kosher salt
• 1 tbsp chilli powder (sometimes I use paprika instead)
• 1 tbsp of any mixture of spices (this is where you can really alter the mixture to suit your taste):
• for example: 
• ½ tsp cayenne
• ½ tsp old bay
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• ½ tsp onion powder
• ½ tsp ground black pepper
• ½ tsp dried thyme      
• (as long as you combine 3 tsp of spices, you will get the last 1 in your ratio)

Mix until everything is well blended and rub all over:

• 1 pork shoulder roast.  (I will buy whichever pork shoulder or blade roast is on sale, sometimes the one with the bone in and the nice layer of fat still wrapped around and sometimes the boneless one.)

Place in the slow cooker

Turn cooker on to low for 6-8 hours or on high for 4 -6 hours.  Times vary greatly and depend on the size of the roast and the size of the slow cooker. (Make sure slow cooker is also plugged in!!!)
 

• Shred the pork.  You will know the pork is ready because it will fall apart completely when you try to take it out of the slow cooker. 
• Sort through the pork with some tongs or forks, shred it and take out any fat or gristle, or bone left behind.   
• There will be some yummy juices in the slow cooker. Strain out any sediments a nd return the juice to the slow cooker.  (I like to use a large pot as the handles on the side make it easy to pour the liquid back into the slow cooker.)
• Add the pork back to the slow cooker so it can bath in the yummy, liquidy goodness. 

 

• I like to shred the pork in the pot I just had the juices in because then I am re using a pot.  Remember to add the pulled pork back to the pot to soak up those juices! 

• Mix pork with a bar b q sauce of your choice.

• Serve on a bun.  (tonight I used the honey seed buns from an earlier post)

Pulled pork goes well with coleslaw.  In fact the boys like to put coleslaw on the sandwiches with the pulled pork!

As a bonus, here is the coleslaw recipe:

In a large bowl put:

• 2/3 cup mayo (use your favourite)
• 1 tbsp sugar (or honey)
• 2 tbsp vinegar (I used white rice vinegar as it was the first bottle I found in the cupboard)
• salt and pepper to taste

Mix the dressing and taste.  Adjust seasonings as needed then add to the bowl:

• a 1 pound bag of  your favourite ready to use coleslaw mix

Mix well and put in the fridge until ready to use.