By Guest Cooking Columnist Charles Fortson, Jr.
Try something different for your Christmas dinner this year. Oven roasted pork loin can make your holiday meal special.
Ingredients:
1. 3-5 pound pork loin.
2. 1/2 buch of green onions with bottom cut off.
3. Your favorite Cajun seasoning (mine is Louisiana.)
4. 2 tablespoons of minced garlic.
5. 1 ½ pound of thin sliced bacon.
6. ½ stick of butter.
7. Paprika.
You will also need cooking string and tooth picks.
Directions:
1. Two way to prepare the pork loin:
- Cut ¾-inch into meat down its length.
- Cut ½-inch into meat down its length and unroll it until it looks like a sheet of paper.
2. Apply the Cajun seasoning and paprika all over the meat.
3. On the inside cut, spread the 2 tablespoons of minced garlic.
4. Place 4 bacon strips on the inside cut.
5. Cut butter into slices and place them on inside cut.
6. Close up the pork loin, tying it both ends and the center with the cooking string. Set aside.
7. Lay out remaining slices of bacon side by side.
8. Place pork loin on the bacon slices. Wrap them around it, with ends meeting at top, and secure at top with tooth picks.
9. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
10. Place the prepared pork loin in cooking pan and put in oven.
11. Cook for 15 minutes with top of pork loin up. Turn over and cook another 15 minutes.
12. Cover pork loin and cook for one hour at 350 degrees. Larger pork loins will need to cook longer.
Remove from oven and serve sliced into ½-inch cuts with favorite sides, cut thinner for great sandwiches. White pepper gravy serves well over it on those cold winter days.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Charles Fortson, Jr., is proprietor-chef at Uncle Ray’s across from Lake Lincoln State Park. He makes lunches and dinners to take out or for table service, while also operating a convenience store and bait shop at his Sunset Road location. Follow his cooking tips on Uncle Ray’s Facebook page or call 601-643-0174 to check on his daily specials.