DEAR GIRL:

This is it. Sunday dinner is looming, the in-laws are coming into town and I’m sure they’re not expecting Lean Cuisine. I’ve never cooked a roast – don’t even know how to carve a big chunk of meat like that – and I’m starting to panic. What can I cook that will impress my conservative father-in-law? These are real meat and potatoes people. PLEEZE HURRY!

Panicked in Pittsburgh

DEAR PANICKED:

Take a deep breath and pull the car into the closest supermarket parking lot. Repeat after me – “I will serve a Sunday roast, and it will be sensational.”

I’m gonna say serve pork, because it’s more forgiving than beef and less expensive. Your in-laws probably never had it with a groovy white wine gravy and baby vegetables either, so that’s sure to impress.

Plus, it’s easy to find a nice lean, boneless leg of pork almost anywhere. The boneless part is the trick – every slice will look perfect on the plate, it’s a snap to carve and the people will actually get more meat than the dog. You don’t have to use the baby fingerling potatoes and perfect little beets, but make the effort to find them and you’ll at least have one fascinating thing to talk about over dinner.

Get out your best dishes (you know, the fine china your in-laws gav e you that never gets used), and set the table before they arrive. Plate the dinner in the kitchen and garnish with fresh herbs, and they’ll think you’re a gourmet goddess.

SUNDAY ROAST PORK

Pork is lean and easy to cook – and a roast pork dinner makes an impressiv e family meal on Sunday (with leftovers for tacos and miso-laced noodle soup during the week).  Start with a roast from the butcher that’s been de-boned and tied, or enclosed in one of the new string mesh sleeves, and pick one that’s evenly shaped (not too skinny at one end). Use a heavy roasting pan and an instant read thermometer, and you’ll have a perfect dinner, done in just over an hour.

1 3-pound boned and rolled pork leg roast

2-3 cloves garlic, smashed and roughly chopped,  PLUS 6 whole cloves garlic, peeled

6 fresh sage leaves, sliced,  or 2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary (fresh herbs are a secret weapon, don’t substitute dry,)

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

2 cups small baby carrots

8-12 baby or fingerling potatoes, halved (or larger potatoes cut into 1-2-inch chunks)

2 large onion, peeled and cut into wedges

whole baby yellow beets, peeled (optional)

1 cup white wine

extra sprigs of fresh sage or rosemary to garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 500°F.

2. Reaching  your fingers under the string that’s tying the roast, find the cuts where the roast has been de-boned and push the smashed garlic and sage or rosemary  as far inside the roast as you can. If your roast is held in a mesh sleeve, work some of the garlic and herbs under the sleeve to hold it against  the meat as it roasts. Rub the roast with about 1 teaspoon of the olive oil and season it on all sides with salt and pepper.

3. Find a large roasting pan, large enough to hold the meat and the vegetables in a single layer. Place the carrots, potatoes, whole garlic cloves, onion wedges and beets in the roasting pan and drizzle with the remaining olive oil. Toss to coat the vegetables with oil. Season with salt and pepper and toss again. If you can’t find baby yellow beets, don’t substitute purple beets (they will bleed) but consider using something else for colour,  like chunks of red or yellow peppers, or even squash.

4. Push the vegetables to the outside of the pan and place the roast in the centre. Place the pan in the preheated oven and immediately reduce the oven temperature to 350° F. Roast for about 1 hour, stirring the vegetables every 20 minutes and brushing the roast with the fat that it will release as it cooks. After 1 hour, test the internal temperature of the meat using an instant read thermometer. The interior should be 145-150°F. You may need to return the roast to the oven for 15 minutes if it has not reached the desired temperature.

5. Remove the roast from the roasting pan and set on a cutting board to rest for 10 minutes, covered with a tent of foil. Remove the vegetables from the pan with a slotted spoon and arrange around the edge of a serving platter. Drain any excess fat from the roasting pan and discard. Place the pan over high heat on the stove top, add the wine and simmer, scraping up any brown bits. Boil until the sauce has been reduced by half. Season with salt and pepper and strain into a small pitcher.

6. Remove the string from the roast and carve into 1/4-1/2-inch slices. Arrange in the centre of the platter. Drizzle the meat with the sauce. Tuck some fresh herbs in among the vegetables to garnish the platter and voila! Sunday dinner for four.

©Cinda Chavich

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Sure you’re busy rock climbing and running your own company, but  you gotta eat, and sometimes you gotta cook. So let the Girl solve your culinary conundrums – and make you look good next time the kitchen calls. Send your dining dilemmas to chavich@telus.net or read The Girl Can’t Cook.