Coaching Cooking

One of my favorite food memories is a roast that my mom, Jeanne, made on occasion. She always combined apricot preserves with soy sauce, garlic and other tangy spices. The roast paired perfectly with rice (our daily staple) and the sauce always had a delicious, spicy flavor.

AB, my husband, has become quite the connoisseur of meats, and more recently, pork. Since he is always my first taste-tester, I made the following meal just for him.

The idea for this dish stems from a strange wedding gift given to AB and myself this past summer. I opened a heavy package to find six jars of Knotts Berry Farm jam staring me back in the face. So far I’ve yet to finish even one of those jam jars. Instead I’ve taken it upon myself to find creative ways to use these gifties (although, admittedly, I should have just given them away to spare cupboard space). But, as a cook, I love the challenge. Here’s my first triumph:

Jenny’s Roast Pork (by way of Jeanne…)

Ingredients:

Marinade:
1/2 cup of apricot-pineapple jam (or apricot jam works great too)
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
3/4 cup of soy sauce (dark soy)
A few teaspoons of hoisin sauce
A few dashes of Sriracha hot chili sauce (or Tabasco if you like)

1 package of pork loin (in the grocery store, pork loin is often sold two to a package…I can’t remember the exact weight, but it’s safe to say I used about 3 pounds of pork loin)

Using a whisk, mix the first 4 ingredients together in a medium-size bowl. Remove the pork loin from its packaging and place in the bowl with the marinade. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and allow the pork to marinate while the oven heats up.

According to the package directions, the pork should be cooked about twenty minutes for each pound. I would adjust this time depending on your preference for doneness and on your oven’s true temperature. I cooked the pork at 350 degrees for an hour and it was a little dry. It is also important to let the pork loin rest after you take it out of the oven for twenty minutes. If you cut the meat too early then the juices will run out and the meat will be dry.

This is a delicious dish to serve with rice or roasted potatoes. The marinade and pork juices left in the pan can be heated on the stove to make a gravy.

Easy gravy:

Marinade and pork juices from the pork loin
1 tablespoon of cornstarch mixed in a 1/3 cup of water, blended so there are no lumps

Heat the ingredients in a small saucepan over medium high heat until the gravy thickens. More cornstarch/water mixture can be added if you like your gravy extra thick. Make sure to watch the gravy carefully as it thickens so it doesn’t become too thick. Chicken stock can also be added to thin the gravy.