Tonight’s Mystery Box Challenge

My husband came home from the store with the following “mystery box” ingredients:

Pork crown roast
Oyster Mushrooms
Mango

For those of you that have been following me for a while, you know one of my dreams is to be a Chef, and own my own restaurant. My husband and I fell in love with the show, “Master Chef” when it first came out, and although he swears I was ready to try out this year, I decided I needed a year to practice, perfect, and hone my skills as a ‘home cook’ that has had NO professional training.
Every couple weeks after our bi-monthly trip to the grocery store, he chooses several ingredients for me to create a dish with for our family.
I try to cook within an hour time limit, but am not always successful yet in that aspect of my goals.
So here is what I did…
I immediately preheated the oven to 375 degrees, and drizzled the pork with good extra virgin olive oil, and seasoned liberally with salt and pepper. I seared all sides of the roast, and popped it in the oven to roast. (Takes about 45 minutes, and I pull it out about 10 degrees early-150 degrees, as letting it rest at least 10 minutes will bring the temp up to the required 160 degrees).

While the roast was cooking, I knew I wanted to make a puree’ with the mango to set off the pork nicely. I chopped 2 mangos and put them in my food processor. I added a splash of chicken stock, drizzled with EVOO, and seasoned with salt, pepper, cilantro, jalapeno flakes, ginger and lemon juice and gave it a few pulses until it was pureed. Set this aside for plating.

Next, I thought since we had 45 minutes for the roast to cook, I’d make an appetizer with the oyster mushrooms. I cleaned several caps for the appetizer, and also sautéed half the mushrooms with garlic to serve in my brown rice-and the appetizer filling.

Stuffed Oyster Mushrooms

I added 1 dollop of low-fat cream cheese and light sour cream into a bowl. Chop 2 tablespoons of the sautéed mushrooms, a handful of green olives, 1 teaspoon of capers, and 1 chopped green onion and add them to the mixture. Mix well, and spoon onto the caps. Bake for 10 minutes and serve!

Prepare brown rice according to the package directions, and add in dry cilantro, salt, pepper, and the remainder of the Oyster Mushrooms.
Next, sauté your favorite veggie to serve along with the roast once you pull it out to rest for 10 minutes. I chose Asparagus and button mushrooms, tying the dish together.

Plate, and serve!