How to: Roast at High Heat

Growing up Sunday night dinner was a big deal. My mom or dad (both are great cooks) made something that took a little longer than your average weeknight meal. Any family that was in town came over to catch up and share a meal.

I still love Sunday night dinner even though we are far from home so I try to do something special to start the week off right. This week I decided on a pork loin roast. One of my favorite ways to cook a roast like this is high heat in the oven.

Using high heat really seals in the flavors. It also lets you cook at 2-3 pound roast in less than an hour, which I really love. I also use high heat to roast vegetables. Roasted veggies are so much taster than steamed (which have their place too).

Tips for High Heat Roasting
1.) Make sure your meat is room temperature. If your meat is cold inside it will not cook evenly. I usually take the roast out of the fridge about 30 minutes before I put it in the oven.
2.) If your roast has a fat layer on it, make diagonal slices before putting in the oven. By slicing the meat you will allow for the fat to render. No one likes big, wiggly pieces of fat on their plate.
3.) Make sure your oven is clean. No need to set off the smoke alarms.

Ingredients

- 2-3 pound pork loin roast
- 1 teaspoonful dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoonful dried sage
- 1 teaspoonful dried thyme
- 1 teaspoonful kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoonful black pepper
- 3 garlic cloves cut in half
- 1 tablespoon olive oil

- 2 large sweet potatoes diced
- 1 large onion chopped
- 1 head cauliflower chopped
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 500

For Veggies
- Places all your chopped veggies on a large baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil enough to coat but not so much they are swimming
- Season with salt and pepper to taste
- Roast these on the lower oven rack for about 40 minutes until caramelized and tender

For the roast (Recipe adapted from Cuisine at Home, Issue 84, December 2010)
- Combine the herbs, olive oil and salt in pepper in a small bowl
- Cut 6 shallow holes in the pork and then insert a piece of garlic into each hole
- Score the fat on the pork in a crisscross pattern

- Rub both sides of the roast with the herb mixture
- Roast on the middle rack for 20 minutes and then flip until the internal temperature is 145, about 20 minutes more
- Let the roast rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing

How was your Monday?