I've wanted to make pork loin for a long time, but never have, probably because it was never on sale. I finally decided I didn't care anymore and picked this recipe out of the my meat book I got for Christmas. The pork here is a cut from the center loin and I put it through a herb rub of basil, rosemary, oregano, garlic salt, pepper and tarragon. Tarragon wasn't actually in the recipe, but I never get to use it very much, so I just threw it in there. The pork was then panfried on both sides, and cooked covered for just a few minutes. The meat book laments continously about how pork is universally overcooked, promising that trichinosis is killed at 137 F, and therefore slightly pink is ok, but I still may have gone a little too far, as I didn't see any pink at all.
The leftover drippings were used to make the pan sauce, which was supposed to consist of onion, orange juice, lemon juice, orange marmalade, and chicken stock. However I have a rather annoying habit of making up a grocery list so I don't forget anything, then forgetting to take the list with me. Therefore when I got to the store I was left to the mercy of my memory, which as you may guess from the previous sentence, has some gaps. Luckily I had some chicken bouillon, which I added to boiling water to replace the chicken stock. In anycase, the onions were sautéed in the drippings, then all the other ingredients added and the sauce boiled and reduced. At the very end I added some corn starch to thicken it some.
In the end I'm glad I decided to splurge, for though the pork lion may have been cooked a little longer than necessary, it wasn't dry, and the orange sauce turned out wonderful. I have enough pork to cook it again tomorrow night, so I can take another shot at getting the cooking time down.
Plus now I have extra orange juice, which I love to drink, but never buy, because well, you can guess.
No comments:
Post a Comment