No matter how popular and recommended are ready-made smoked meats, sausages and other factory-made meat products, home culinary delights will never go out of style and will always meet the "strict standards and requirements" of your family.
Leader of the meat market
If you poll the majority of visitors to hypermarkets and markets on the topic of the most popular red meat both in Russia and in many other countries, then pork will take the leading position by a significant margin in the number of votes.
It is impossible to unequivocally answer the question of the nutritional value of this product, the calorie content directly depends on the part of the carcass that is going to be used. For example, the neck and shank are considered more fatty parts, but the brisket, lumbar part, shoulder blade, etc. can be attributed to dietary ones.
Oddly enough, but there is still a lot of controversy around this product - is there more harm or benefit to eating pork? Be that as it may, but pig meat is the main source of many useful elements for our body. Pork is considered one of the richest sources of protein and amino acids, and its less fatty parts are almost 1/3 of proteins. Such a healthy morsel will be just a royal lunch or dinner for bodybuilders who need to gain muscle mass, or an indispensable part of the diet for athletes recovering from any injury.
Also, pork meat contains a fairly large amount of various vitamins and minerals: selenium, zinc, thiamine, vitamins B6, B12, phosphorus, iron, potassium and other useful substances. In addition, pork is enriched with taurine, which has a positive effect on the functioning of the human cardiovascular system, contains the antioxidant glutathione and an important source of energy for muscles, creatine.
But do not forget about the presence in such meat of not entirely healthy contents: cholesterol, especially undesirable for people suffering from obesity, atherosclerosis and pancreatitis, and histamine, which can cause allergic reactions.
Summing up, we can say that pork can and should be used in your diet, you just need to more consciously choose the part of the carcass that you are going to cook and decide on the most suitable recipe.
The classic recipe for pork on the bone in the sleeve
In this recipe, of course, the more high-calorie part of pork is involved, but during the cooking process a lot of fat will simply leave the meat, in addition, a dietary side dish, such as rice or buckwheat porridge, can be served with such a tidbit.
To prepare a dinner for 6 people, you will need:
- pork loin - 6 pcs. or 1.5-2 kg;
- shalshyk sauce or sweet and sour sauce - 2 tablespoons;
- sugar - 1 tsp;
- salt, pepper mixture, dried herbs - to taste.
Step by step cooking:
- If in the store it was not possible to purchase the loin already disassembled into portioned pieces, then at home you have to do it yourself, cutting the meat into plates and chopping the bone with a kitchen hatchet. As a result, you will have bones with oval pieces of meat attached to them.
- Each steak must be thoroughly rinsed under running water, dried with a paper towel, and trimmed off any excess fat, hard cartilage (if any), and a thin film.
- Season with salt and pepper, add dried herbs and sprinkle with a few grains of sugar. Sugar will play an important role here: thanks to it, the meat will seem to caramelize and will not let the juice come out during the cooking process.
- The most delicious, of course, will be marinated meat, so if there is such an opportunity, do all the procedures in the evening, and put the marinated pieces in an enamel pan and put them in the refrigerator overnight.
- When the loin is soaked in all the spices, shake the meat well in a saucepan, transfer the steaks to the bones in a roasting sleeve and tie on both sides. Make slits in several places with a knife so that excess steam can escape.
- Transfer the sleeve to a baking sheet and put it in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Bake the meat for 1-1.5 hours. When the loin is cooked enough, unfold the sleeve and brush the surface of the meat with kebab sauce. Place in the oven for another 10 minutes.
Pork loin in glaze
To bake pork loin in glaze, it is not necessary to choose portioned "pistols", you can also bake a whole piece of pork, which will in no way affect the delicious and unusual taste of the finished dish.
For the dish you will need:
- pork loin - 1.5 kg;
- oranges - 100 g;
- garlic - 5-6 cloves;
- fresh marjoram - 50 g;
- olive oil - 50 ml;
- salt, pepper - to taste.
For glaze:
- liquid honey - 1 tsp;
- paprika - 1 tsp;
- olive oil - 1 tablespoon;
- lemon juice - 1 tablespoon
Step by step recipe:
- Wash the whole loin well, dry it and cut it to the bone, making it seem like a fan of 2-3 cm thick plates.
- Mix the garlic, marjoram leaves, salt, pepper and olive oil in a wooden mortar and chop well.
- Grate the loin with chopped marinade, put in a saucepan, cover and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours.
- After the specified time has elapsed, transfer the meat to the roasting sleeve, pour first with freshly squeezed orange (can be replaced with lemon) juice, and then pour the remaining marinade out of the pan. Tie on both sides and make several punctures in the bag.
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees and send the baking sheet with meat for 50-60 minutes.
- Now you need to prepare the glaze: mix honey, lemon juice, paprika and olive oil in one bowl.
- After the indicated time, remove the loin from the oven, cut off the top of the sleeve and pour over 1/4 of the prepared glaze. Send to the oven for another 15 minutes.
- After 15 minutes, remove the meat again and pour another 1/4 part of the glaze. Put in the oven for 15 minutes. Do the glazing procedure 2 more times. In general, the loin will have to spend about 2 hours in the oven.
Pork bone in a sleeve with vegetables
Of course, the finished dish will contain a lot of carbohydrates, but on the other hand, this is a successful and completely uncomplicated way to satisfyingly and tasty feed your household. In addition, the presence of certain vegetable ingredients can be safely interchanged and deviated from the recipe described below. For example, you can add tomatoes or remove carrots if you or someone in your family doesn't really respect them.
Required ingredients for 4 servings:
- pork loin on the bone - 4 pcs.;
- potatoes - 8-10 pcs.;
- onions - 2 heads;
- carrots - 1 pc.;
- bell pepper - 2 pcs.;
- salt, pepper, favorite spices - to taste.
Step-by-step recipe:
- Wash the meat well, dry with a paper towel, rub with salt, pepper and spices
- Then peel the onions, cut into half rings and make an onion "fur coat" for the loin: put half the onion on the bottom of the enamel dish, put the meat on top, then the onion again, you can cover with something heavy, for example, a saucepan of water, and leave to marinate for 2 -3 hours in the refrigerator.
- Peel potatoes and carrots, wash, cut into half rings.
- Wash the bell peppers, free them from the core with seeds and also cut them into rings or half rings (for a spectacular appearance, you can take 2 different colored peppers - yellow and green, for example).
- In a deep bowl, combine the prepared vegetables, season with salt and pepper and mix well.
- Separate the meat from the onion and lightly fry in a non-stick skillet (you can add a little oil) for 5 minutes on each side.
- Put vegetables, pork pistols into the baking sleeve, tie it on both sides with a special clip or thread, you can shake the entire contents of the bag again and put it on a baking sheet,making a couple of holes in the sleeve for steam to escape.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and send the dish to bake for 1 hour. If you want to get browned vegetables, then after 50 minutes you need to cut the sleeve and put it back in the oven so that an appetizing crust appears in the remaining 10 minutes.
