Use a hard apple cider-like Island Orchard Brut Apple Hard Cider or Von Stiehl’s Bourbon-Aged Apple Cider to both braise and make a sauce for this delicious autumn entrée.
Ingredients
- 1 tbls. dry basil
- 1 tbls. dry tarragon
- 1 tbls. dry rosemary
- ¾ tsp. sea salt
- ½ tsp. ground black pepper
- 3 to 4 tbls. extra-virgin olive oil
- 2/3 cup hard apple cider
- One 2 ½ pound pork loin roast
- 6 garlic cloves, peeled
- 1 tbls. extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 to 3 cups hard apple cider
- 1 cup vegetable or chicken stock
- 2 medium white onions, peeled & quartered
- 1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into ½-inch pieces
- 3 firm apples, cut into halves or quarters depending on size
- 2 cups strained juice from pork roast
- ½ cup heavy cream
- 1 tbls. maple syrup
- 2 tbls. chopped Italian parsley
- 1 tsp. dried rosemary or 1 tbls fresh rosemary, chopped
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbls. cornstarch dissolved in 3 tbls. hard cider
Instructions
Rub pork roast with dried herbs, salt and pepper. Place in roasting pan. Drizzle with enough olive oil to just coat. Pour cider over roast. Cover loosely with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 6 hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove pork from pan. Discard marinade and clean pan. Place onions and sweet potatoes in bottom of cleaned roasting pan. Make six 1/2 –inch slits along width of pork roast. Insert a garlic clove into each slit. Heat a large saute pan on medium-high heat.
Add 1 tbls. olive oil. When hot, add pork. Sear on all sides. Remove and place seared pork on top of vegetables. Deglaze pan with 1 ½ cups hard cider and 1 cup stock. Simmer for 2 minutes to scrape up bits of pork from pan. Pour cider/stock over roast. Roast for 20 minutes in preheated oven. Reduce heat to 375 degrees. Add apples to pan; roast for additional 45 minutes to 1 hour, adding additional cider as needed. Baste roast periodically with pan juices. Roast until internal temperature reached 145 degrees. Remove roast, tent with foil and rest for 10 minutes before carving.
Prepare the sauce: Remove onions, potatoes and apples. Place on serving dish. Strain juices into measuring cup. Add additional cider if needed to make 2 cups. Place in saucepot and heat. Simmer to reduce while pork is resting. When reduced by ¼, add cream, maple syrup, parsley, rosemary, salt and pepper to taste. Simmer sauce and stir in cornstarch mixture to thicken.
