Keep kitchen cool with roasts off the grill
Knowing temperature of meat key to success
A big, glorious piece of meat makes an impressive presentation (apologies to vegetarians), and yet a roast can be one of the simplest dishes to prepare, leaving time and psychic energy for more elaborate appetizers, desserts and conversation with guests.
“But it’s summer,” you say. “And it’s hot! Who wants to crank up the oven?”
Not me, which is why in hot weather, I move my roasting outside to my grill. Cooking a roast on the grill is a chill way to make a grand main course.
Before you launch into your grill-roasting, you need to reframe your relationship with the grill itself.
Cooking a roast is not like cooking burgers or barbecuing chicken, where you’re seeing the fire and engaging with it in an ongoing way. With a roast, your grill is now your oven, albeit one that is fired by burning charcoal (or the jets in your gas grill). The same principles of convective heat that cook food in your oven now apply to the grill.
The challenge with this cooking technique is to create steady, predictable heat so that the interior of the roast cooks properly without the exterior getting overdone. Keeping three things in mind will help you accomplish this.
■ Take your meat’s temperature. The first step is to moderate the temperature of your meat before you put it on the grill. If the meat is ice-cold, direct from the refrigerator, it will take more time for the center of that meat to get to temperature, meaning the outside of the roast is at risk of overcooking. I like to take my roast (which, for this recipe, is a 3-pound, boneless pork loin) out of the fridge at least one hour before cooking, which lets the meat rise in temperature about 15 degrees, without any food safety risks. The USDA advises that raw meat should not be left out for more than two hours. (If your kitchen is over 90 degrees, don’t exceed that 1 hour of rest.) To gauge your roast’s temperature, insert your instant-read thermometer into the center. Take a reading right out of the fridge and again after an hour or so.
■ Take your grill’s temperature. The most important part of this grill-roasting process is setting up your fire so that the roast is receiving the lovely warmth from the heat source — coals or gas jets — without being directly over them. With my basic round kettle-style grill, I move the hot coals to the perimeter and place the roast right in the center, with no coals underneath. This creates even heat all around the roast. Use an oven thermometer to determine that the level of heat inside the grill is optimal.
■ Use the lid to create an outdoor oven. The next step is to close the lid, and this is what defines grill-roasting. You need the lid to create convection heat; the domed shape of a kettle grill lid is ideal. With the fuel on the bottom and the lid creating a closed chamber, the heat f lows up and around the whole interior of the grill, bathing theroastinhotair...justlikea regular oven.
Unlike an oven, however, you can’t just set the temperature to 375 degrees and have it stay there. With grill-roasting, your initial setup will determine how the temperature is maintained throughout cooking, and you may need to do some adjusting here and there. Grill-roasting does have one disadvantage: no gravy. You’re not collecting pan juices with which to make a pan-sauce or gravy, but that just opens the door to other delicious options. I love pork with fruit, and at this point in the summer, berries are in abundance, so I’m pairing my roast with a sweet-savory blackberry sauce. The berries bring fruity depth, while shallots, rosemary and a shot of balsamic vinegar keep the sauce from being too sweet.for a fine sandwich. 6 servings 1 (3-pound) boneless pork
loin Extra-virgin olive oil Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE SAUCE
2 tablespoons extra-virgin
olive oil
¼ cup finely chopped shallot (from 1 medium shallot) or onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped 1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary, plus more for garnish
1⁄8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or more to taste
1 pint fresh or frozen blackberries (about 10 ounces), plus more for garnish
3 tablespoons pure maple
syrup
2 tablespoons balsamic
vinegar, or more to taste 2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar, or more to taste
1 teaspoon kosher salt, or
more to taste
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard Freshly ground black pepper
■ Let the pork loin sit at room perature for about 1 hour.
■ Make the sauce: While the pork is resting, in a medium saucepan or skillet over medium-high heat, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the shallot, garlic, rosemary and crushed red pepper flakes and cook, stirring frequently, until the shallot and garlic are tender and fragrant, about 4 minutes; adjust the heat if the shallot or garlic start to brown.
■ Add the blackberries, syrup, vinegar, brown sugar, salt and mustard and stir to combine, crushing the berries with a spoon or rubber spatula to start releasing the juices.
■ Adjust the heat so the mixture is at a lively simmer and cook until the blackberries collapse and the mixture thickens slightly, stirring frequently, 10 to 15 minutes. (This will take a few minutes longer if you are using frozen blackberries.)
■ Transfer the sauce to a blender and process until smooth. Strain through a sieve back into the saucepan, pressing and scraping the blackberry pulp to remove the seeds while pushing the pulp through. (You could skip this step,
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