Cranberry Pork Roast

Cranberry Pork Roast

Ingredients:

4 lb. boneless pork roast

Spice rub:

2 t sea salt

1 t freshly ground pepper

2 t ground thyme

¼ t ground nutmeg

Herbs, vegetables, etc.:

3 carrots, sliced

1onion, chopped

Several whole garlic cloves

4 whole cloves

3 bay leaves

2 T dried parsley

2 T dried celery leaves

2 c homemade chicken stock (recipe follows) (you could use the watery store-bought kind if you had to)

1 package of cranberries

Use a stoneware covered roaster for the best results.

Heat the oven to 450 degrees. Rub the spice rub all over the pork roast. Put uncovered into oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and add herbs, vegetables and chicken stock. Add cranberries to the top of everything. Turn heat to 200 degrees, cover pork roast, return to oven and slow cook for several hours. The longer it cooks slow and low the more tender it becomes, especially in stoneware.

Serving ideas: baked sweet potatoes, winter squash, mashed potatoes, baked potatoes, green beans, etc. and—of course—salad and bread.

Variants that give fine results:

1. After the initial 450 degrees for 30 minutes, 350 degrees for 3 hours.

2. Rub the roast, put it in a crockpot, add the rest of the ingredients and cook it on low all day or high for 4 hours.

Homemade Chicken Stock:

This is a very easy way to save money and much yummier than store-bought.

Roast a chicken in the crock pot (with potatoes, carrots, onions, garlic, etc.), use the chicken for a recipe or eat it as is for supper. Put the chicken carcass and leftover vegetables back into the crockpot, add more onions and garlic, cover with water, and cook on low overnight or indefinitely. Slow and low is best, in my experience most slow cookers have too high of a low setting. This can also be done on top of the stove, in the oven, and in a roaster with several reserved carcasses.  The more onions and garlic, the better the broth. Leave the dried brown onions skins on for a darker broth. Cool the broth, strain, and put in freezer containers for later use.

How to use the leftovers for a frugal and delicious soup!

Cranberry Pork Roast into Squash and Tomato Bisque

This is how I used the leftovers last time we had Cranberry Pork Roast. It was very delicious and pretty.

Unfortunately we cannot find the picture we took of it. The bisque is a deep orange with a hint of pink to it. There are pieces of pork, celery leaves, onion, and cranberries throughout. The bites of cranberry and are a wonderful contrast to the sweetness of the bisque.

Ingredients:

olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 c chicken stock

4 c  tomato juice

4 c squash puree (butternut, delicada, acorn, pumpkin, etc.) (this is from leftover squash from another meal or you could buy canned pumpkin)

Sea salt to taste

Red pepper flakes

In a dutch oven, saute the onion in  oil. Add the chicken stock, tomato juice, squash puree heat to simmer then puree with a  stick blender. Add seasonings. If you would prefer it thinner, add more chicken broth. This could be thrown together in the crockpot in the morning and served at supper time. Leftovers freeze very well and as with many soups, it tastes better the second day.

Now, to jazz it up a bit with Cranberry Pork Roast leftovers (we’re very frugal foodlovers here).

I happened to have leftover Squash and Tomato Bisque in the freezer. Into a dutch oven I put 4 cups of Squash and Tomato Bisque, 4 cups of chicken broth, 2 cups of leftover baked sweet potatoes (from our cranberry pork roast dinner). I heated and pureed this soup with the stick blender. Then I cut the leftover pork and vegetables into bite sized pieces and added it to the hot soup. Heated it to a simmer and served. It was very pretty and tasted wonderful.

As a young bride, I needed kitchen wisdom. My mother-in-law mentored me and gave me an excellent pork roast spice rub recipe. I learned to make an excellent chicken stock, the value of herbs, spices and garlic, and to cook slow and low. Eventually I combined the spice rub with a cranberry pork recipe to make a tender, juicy, home-time favorite. I can dump this easy recipe into the crockpot in the morning, or take the extra time to rub the spices and sear it. Now, Cranberry Pork Roast is a “comfort food” for my husband and nine children.