I really went all out with this meal because I was a lazy Susan all week. This was the perfect Sunday night meal. Porchetta with salt baked miso and kale stuffed potatoes and arugula salad. Earlier this week I curled up with the newest edition of Food & Drink magazine (free at the LCBO) and got VERY inspired. My original plan was to make porchetta. (LOOK AT THIS BAD BOY)

Porchetta is pork loin or shoulder with herbs and spices wrapped in a large piece of pork belly and slow roasted. When I arrived at my butcher they had a beautiful, pre-assembled porchetta (that would have worked out to the same cost had I made it myself) so I went with the easier option.

The thing is, there is not a lot on the internet about how to roast a 2 pound porchetta. Most recipes are for 10 pounders. Using basic math and suggestions from various other food blogs, I decided to cook my porchetta on a roasting rack in a casserole dish for 20 minutes at 500 and 1 hour at 300. You cook it on high to get that nice fatty layer all crispy and delicious. When it was done I put my meat thermometer in and it wasn’t registering a high enough temperature (should be at least 160) so I put it back in for 10 minutes. Still not done. Jacked up the heat to 325 and put it back in for another 10 minutes. STILL not done. At that point I didn’t care and put my pochetta under foil to rest for 15 minutes. Guess what? IT WAS OVERDONE. My thermometer is a dirty liar. It’s brand new too! I guess I should have trusted my mathematic skills and my gut. We rely on technology too much and soon robots will be murdering us. Usually the porchetta skin turns into cracklins and it’s quite delicious but this pork belly crust was way to hard to eat because it had been cooked for too long. Otherwise, it was absolutely delicious. Maybe next time I’ll throw it in the slow cooker!

Here’s a recipe for porchetta if you attempt to make it on your own.

http://honestlyyum.com/7841/porchetta/

Time for the the potatoes. Before I started cooking my porchetta I started pre-baking my potatoes (because they cook at different temps and I don’t have one of those fancy dual ovens).  Here is the recipe from Food and Drink.

I did everything the same way but used olive oil instead of butter and 18% instead of 35% cream. I also cut the recipe in half as I was just making 2 potatoes. These bad boys are to die for. The creamy miso mixed with the parmesan cheese creates a beautiful flavour that I’ve never even tasted before. I feel like it activated taste buds I didn’t even know were there. The potatoes were baked perfectly and the skin was crisp and delicious. I will definitely be making these again!