The best stuffed rib roast we ever had was at Pécs back in 1984, cousin Jenő’s first wife, temperamental Eta was also an effortless and brilliant cook. After a day of sightseeing, Eta served us a fabulous supper of soup and töltött oldalas. When we went back four years later Eta was gone. Jenő had a new wife who wasn’t much of a cook, wasn’t much of anything really. Not long after we met she cleared out Jenő’s architect penthouse and left him for a dentist. Eventually Jenő moved back home to Siklós and now lives with his mom.
Every time I make this, I think of my cousin and his first wife. I don’t make this often enough though because it isn’t easy to find a nice pork rib roast in Kamloops and then I have to fall back on stuffing a tenderloin. But a rib roast is oh so much more moist and flavourful! I like to serve it cold with a jar of homemade apricots and a jar of pickled pepper strips. This time I made two smallish roasts for company.
Here we are the girls and I at Jenő and Eta's
1 pork rib roast
salt to taste250 g lean ground pork
1 small onion, diced
3 Tbsp oil
3 slices of light rye bread
1 egg
2 garlic cloves, minced
salt and pepper to taste
2 fresh parsley sprigs, finely chopped
1/2 tsp marjoram
3-4 garlic cloves, slivered
1 onion, sliced
• Make a slit down the side of the roast and filet the meat into a thick rectangle.
• To help it along, pound it out a little with a meat tenderizer.
• Lightly salt it on both sides and set it aside.
• In a fry-pan, sauté the diced onions on 3 Tbsp oil until very soft.
• Place the ground pork into a large bowl.
• Soften the rye slices with water and squeeze out all the liquid. Crumble it very fine and add to the bowl with the ground pork.
• Add the egg, minced garlic, pepper, salt, parsley and marjoram. I also added chopped chives this time.
• With clean hands, combine mixture until all the ingredients are well distributed. If you find bits of bread in the mixture, crumble them, the stuffing has to have a fine, well blended consistency. I usually spend a few minutes kneading the stuffing.
• Place the stuffing on the prepared meat, roll it up and tie it up securely with kitchen twine.
• With a small paring knife, poke holes into the meat and insert the garlic slivers into the holes.
• It is essential to use a roaster with a well fitting lid. Using a well fitting lid guarantees a moist pork rib roast. Covering it with foil will never work as well.
• Line the bottom of the roaster with the sliced onions.
• Place the rib roast on the top, cover and bake at 350F, basting it often.
• When the roast is tender, remove the lid and bake uncovered for 15-20 minutes.
• Remove from the oven, cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
• Remove the kitchen twine and slice the roast.
• If you intend to serve the roast chilled, chill the roast thoroughly before slicing. That way you can get thin, uniform slices.
