Balsamic-baked Onions and Potatoes with Roast Pork

So, this was the week to go out of my comfort zone. I picked up Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life cookbook, and flipped through the "Summer" section. I marked all the pages of recipes that I would be willing to try, and let T pick one that he wanted. He picked Balsamic-baked onions and potatoes with roast pork.

Okay, I can do this. I have never made a roast before, and never cooked from this cookbook before (despite having it since December), but I am not daunted. I love balsamic-anything, so I am prepared to make some YUM!

One thing about the cookbook is that the instructions are given in prose - there are 6 well-developed paragraphs on the page. I kinda prefer an itemized list, but it should be fine, right? There are several things that I need clarification on, and so I call my Mom: "What colour are 'waxy' potatoes?" "What does 'chuff them up a bit' mean?" "Do I put the pan in the oven with a lid or without - it doesn't say?!"

I love Jamie Oliver - he does an amazing TED talk about food that is inspirational. But I love my Mom more. And if I could cook half as good as her, I'd be happy. But for now, I just have to be content with phoning her half a dozen times every time I cook something new (and truth be told, I think she kinda likes it). She's way better than the internet.

This recipe wasn't all that difficult. Mostly. The roast, which was intimidating for me, was the easiest part. Take the roast, roll it in some herbs and spices, brown it in the pan, stick it in the oven with some chopped onion and celery. That's it.

The hard part of this recipe is that Jamie has you cooking potatoes and onions at the same time, and there are quite a few steps for those. Chop, chop, chop, grind, smash, blend. Boil the potatoes for a bit, then add spices and onions, add balsamic and put into oven. When the roast is done, you take the drippings and broth and onions and celery and mash them all up, add some white wine, reduce, and you've got a sauce for your pork.

I had timers going all over the place, for the potatoes, then the pork, then the onion-potato-balsamic mix, then the reduction. The potatoes didn't cook through the first time (I should have had more of a rolling boil I guess, or cooked them longer than the 8 minutes Jamie suggests), so I had to have a second shot at them in the oven with a lid. The pork juices weren't convincing enough, and so I threw that back into the oven, too.

The whole thing took 3 hours, and I was exhausted at the end! This is why I usually cook out of books like "Great Food Fast"; I mean, what if I had screwed this up irreparably? I would have lost 3 hours of my life and about $50. Sheesh.

Anyways, it turned out. T loved it and was complimenting it all night and even did all the dishes for me. I thought it was pretty good, but almost more trouble than it was worth. I would give it an 8/10 for taste and a 6/10 for ease of preparation. I would probably make the roast again, but I doubt I would try doing a million other things at the same time. :)