Sunday, March 3, 2024

Sunday Dinner Recipes: Roast Rack of Pork

It's shop for Sunday Dinner recipes. In this Sunday dinner recipes, the main event is a Rack of Pork from Top Chef, Wolfgang Puck, served with a Pineapple Lettuce salad, Black Bean Brownies and suggestions for wines. You can certainly add more courses.

A special meal like this starts with a nicely decorated table with centerpiece, beautiful placemats or ironed tablecloth, polished silverware and gorgeous glassware, doesn't it? The most important ingredient is you, a welcoming host.

Here's how to set the table. Whether or not, you are a person who cultivates good food and wine, these dinner recipes are a whole lot of elegant. Put candles on the table, put on some soft music and relax at home with food and family.

Roast Rack of Pork with Caramelized Maple Onions
Serves 4

1 2-pound pork rack with 4 bones attached
3 yellow onions, sliced
2 ounce olive oil
1 inch fresh ginger, crushed
1/2 stick cinnamon
1 star anise
4 tablespoon maple sugar
3 tablespoon sweet butter
3 1/3 cup apple cider
Salt and black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Season both sides of rack with salt and pepper 20 minutes before cooking. Sear in heavy saute pan with olive oil until rack is well caramelized. Set aside.

In same pan, add sliced onions, ginger, cinnamon, star anise and butter. Very slowly cook until onions are well caramelized, about 20 minutes. Add maple sugar and cook for 2 more minutes. Remove onion compote and set aside. Deglaze pan with cider, adjust salt and pepper to taste and reduce until a glaze forms. Return onion compote to pan.

Completely cover rack with half of onion compote. Transfer to roasting pan and place in oven. Cook at 20 minutes per pound or until internal temperature is 150 degrees F.

Halfway through cooking time, pour over remaining half of onion compote. Remove from oven and let rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Deglaze: When a piece of meat [or other food] is roasted, pan fried or prepared in a pan with another form of dry heat, a deposit of browned sugars, carbohydrates, and/or proteins forms on the bottom of the pan, along with any rendered fat.

To deglaze means to loosen and dissolve browned food residue from bottom of pan with a liquid such as wine or vegetable stock and then use the "deglazed mixture" to flavor sauces, soups, and gravies.

This method is the cornerstone of many well known sauces and gravies. The resulting liquid can be seasoned and served on its own (sometimes called a jus), or with the addition of aromatic vegetables, such as onions or shallots, carrots and celery, or used as the base for a soup.

Salad, Pineapple lettuce Dessert Black bean brownies




Dinner Wine, White, Chardonnay, Blanc du Bois, Semillon
Dessert Wine, White, Orange Muscat

Dessert wines are typically chilled and served in a lovely wine glass. Keep the serving size at about half the usual pour, two to three ounces.

The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) is proud to play a role in the continuing success of the Texas wine industry. Find these Texas wines at Kroger, HEB, Randall’s, Fiesta, Whole Foods Market and Central Market.

In recent studies, the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) assigns a number of health benefits to regular, moderate wine consumption. The most widely reported benefit is The French Paradox, a theory that credits the drinking of red wine for the low incidence of heart disease in France – despite a famously high-fat, high-cholesterol diet.

Scientists note wine contains antioxidants and resveratrol, elements believed to be helpful in the prevention of certain diseases. Red wine consumption (and to a lesser degree, white wine) is linked to a number of health benefits, including: heart disease prevention; reduced risk of certain cancers; lowering bad cholesterol; weight loss; improved brain function; controlling glucose and insulin levels; and lowering blood pressure.

Most studies cited here recommend consumption of one or two glasses of wine a day with meals, noting the detrimental effects of over-consumption.