Monday Roast

I finished work early yesterday. Early enough to think about making dinner as well as prepare some food for today's lunch. Everybody knows maple syrup & pecan nuts go well together. I had this crazy idea of combining these 2 ingredients with pork. My plan was to marinate the meat in maple syrup & make pecan crusted pork chop. A while back, the contestants on Masterchef had to recreate the Sunday roast. They had to choose between beef, chicken or pork. On the drive back, I thought, "I should recreate a roast instead." That was how my dish became a reality. I knew I wanted to coat the pork in maple syrup, spread pecan nuts on it & roll it into a roulade. But I definitely needed something else on the plate than just slabs of pork. It came to me to make pickled beetroot & a feta mousse to tie the dish together. 

The roulade was pan seared then finished off cooking in the oven for 1.5 hours. My thermometer recommends an internal temperature of 71°c for medium & 77°c for a well done pork. It was then rested before being cut up. While waiting for the roulade to cook, I pickled diced beetroot in equal parts sugar & vinegar. The feta was melted in cream, gelatine added & passed through a sieve before being refrigerated to set. Just before serving, I whisked the feta mousse & piped it onto the plate. 

This is the creation that I'm most satisfied with so far. It had a balance of flavours; subtle sweetness from the maple syrup, very slight bitterness from the pecans, acidity from the pickled beetroot & saltiness from the feta mousse. It also featured different textures, from the crunch of the pecans & beetroot to the creaminess of the feta mousse. 

My plating still needs a lot of work.