Schweinebraten: My Easter Roast

#RealPeopleRealFood

Butcher Boy’s guest blog series offers up a delicious pork roast recipe for Easter. Our guest blog series highlight customers’ recipes, their inspirations, and the enjoyment of great food. Follow #RealPeopleRealFood on Instagram for our latest posts and updates from previous contributors.

April’s guest blogger Kathy Santoro is a food enthusiast who lives and works in North Andover. Kathy developed, owned, and operated Good Day Cafe for nine years. She currently has returned to the pharmacy and is the pharmacy manager for CVS on Main Street. If she is not there, you can find her on the tennis court or swinging a golf club!

My fondness for German food was firmly established after a visit to Germany in 1995. I fell in love, not only with the landscape of this beautiful country, but the flavors and simplicity with which the food was prepared. Soft pretzels from the corner bakery for breakfast, sausage with mustard for lunch, and some version of roast with savory vegetables like spargel (white asparagus) or braised red cabbage for dinner with a cold German lager.

Schweinebraten (it’s even fun to say the word aloud) is a Bavarian style pork roast that marries several of the traditional spices found in German cooking: caraway, marjoram, clove, thyme and white pepper and traditionally made with a pork shoulder often with the fat cap intact. It’s scored and rubbed with spices, cooked either in a Dutch oven or roasted long and slow in the oven, basted with dark beer, and served with potato dumplings and red cabbage and topped with a delicious brown gravy.

True to my own style of cooking, I have developed a more modern recipe for Schweinebraten with a mushroom gravy. I use a pork butt with only a bit of fat still on. I dry rub the roast with a spice mix of caraway seeds (pulsed in grinder), marjoram, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, salt and pepper. Generously rub spices over the entire surface, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for up to 4 days.

Remove from refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature, about 1-2 hours before cooking. This will allow the meat to relax and prevents dryness. Score the top on the diagonal in both directions to create a diamond pattern. Set roast in roasting pan with a rack and cook in a preheated 350 degree oven for one and a half hours.

Remove from oven and replace rack with chopped parsnip, carrots (I use the whole carrots that have a bit of green top still on), sweet potato, leeks, and onion. Pour the contents of two bottles of dark beer over the vegetables and return to the oven and cook pork to an internal temperature of 145 degrees. Note: I chop vegetables and toss with a bit of olive oil and 1-2 tablespoons of the spice mix used to rub the roast.

After cooking is complete, let the roast rest on a cutting board and remove vegetables. Strain the pan juices and set aside. Cut baby bella mushrooms in quarters and sauté on medium-high heat with 4-6 tablespoons butter until just tender but still firm. Add pan juices and reduce until slightly thickened. Slowly add a corn starch slurry to thicken. Slice roast and serve with vegetables and gravy.

For a larger group, add sides such as sweet and sour red cabbage and buttered spaetzle. I always make a bigger roast than needed and turn leftovers into delicious sandwiches. Make it for Easter or any given Sunday. This meal is a showstopper, not to mention a presentation of unique flavors that your guests are sure to talk about for weeks. Enjoy!

P.S. Feel free to reach out to me on Facebook with questions.