Jan Bilton: Delicious talk about pork

Always rest your meat after roasting to ensure it is extra tender. Photo/Thinkstock

Those who consider pork to be enjoyable but not for the diet-conscious will be pleasantly surprised to learn there are several lean varieties available.

Trim Pork - 100 per cent New Zealand-grown pork, trimmed of all visible fat, with a saturated fat content of 4g per 100g of meat or less and not marinated or coated, carries the National Heart Foundation's tick of approval.

However, the amount of calories will depend on how the pork is cooked. A stir-fry pork dish may have fewer calories than a deep-fried chicken one, but pork will have considerably more calories when served with a creamy sauce. There is little fat marbling the tissue of traditional pork and any outside fat can be trimmed before or after cooking.

Versatile pork is great in stir-fries, casseroles, curries and as a barbecue mainstay.

A new product, Perfect Pork, has been introduced to take the guesswork out of cooking. The pork is Canterbury grown and the company has put stringent requirements on farmers to ensure their properties are well managed, with a strong focus on animal welfare and sustainability. Grain grown on their farms is fed to the animals.

The pork comes in clever new packaging - the roasts are encased in a type of bag that allows it to be cooked at a high temperature for a short time.

You can have a small pork roast on the table in just 35 minutes.

The cooking bag initially retains all the moisture and flavour then splits near the end of cooking to allow for natural colouring to take place. You can find packs of Perfect Pork in many supermarkets.

The secret for extra-tender meat is "always rest after roasting". I draped a thick towel over the top and rested my sirloin roast for 10 minutes before carving.

If you are cooking an unpackaged roast, cover it first with foil then with a towel.

The key to producing tender, juicy pork is to avoid over-cooking.

Pork schnitzel takes about one minute each side to cook. Stir-fry pork takes two minutes to cook and rump steak or medallions may take five to eight minutes a side, depending on thickness.