The Fumbling Foodie

Rosemary-Sage Pork Loin with Bordeaux Sauce

This turned out fantastic. It is difficult to prepare a pork loin that isn't dry, and this one is wonderful. While I used Bordeaux for the sauce, any red wine will do.

For the Pork Loin
2-3 pound boneless pork tenderloin
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
10 garlic cloves
1-2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh sage leaves
1/2 cup finely chopped rosemary leaves
1 can beef broth
salt & pepper to taste

For the Bordeaux Sauce
Pan drippings from the pork loin
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup Bordeaux or other red wine

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Combine the olive oil, rosemary, garlic, sage, salt, and pepper in a blender until you have a paste.

Cut vertical slits through the pork loin as if you were slicing it but cut only about 3/4 the way through. Spoon some of the paste into each slit. Place the pork loin into a roasting pan or baking dish, add about half the can of beef broth. Place it in the oven until the internal temperature of the pork reachs 160F-170F. Add beef broth as necessary to keep the pan from going dry.

When the pork loin is done, remove from the oven, remove form the pan and tent with foil.

Pour the pan juices into a saucepan. Whisk in flour, a little salt and pepper and reduce over medium heat for a minute. Add the wine and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. When the sauce has thickened (2 -3 minutes) remove from heat. and pour over the pork loin.

Sauteed Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Chops

One of the reasons I enjoy this hobby is that there is so much to learn, and that is the reason I love Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything. Preceding each section of recipes is some great instructional material for beginners like me. In the basics of prk chops he says:

Today's pork is so lean that small cuts like chops must be cooked with liquid.

Worth a try, I thought. I took his basic recipe for Sauteed Pork Chops and altered it to my liking. (I find wrapping a boneless pork chop in a slice of prosciutto adds a lot of flavor.) If you can, go to an Italian deli for the prosciutto. You will get much fresher prosciutto in much larger slices. In addition, the vacuum-wrapped prosciutto usually found in supermarkets is too thin to wrap without breaking.

Sauteed Prosciutto-Wrapped Pork Chops

4 center-cut loin boneless pork chops, 3/4 inch - 1 inch thick
4 slices prosciutto, sliced medium
2 tablespoons Tea Oil, grapeseed oil, or other oil with a high smoke point
1/2 cup dry white wine
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup low sodium beef broth
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Sprinkle the chops lightly with salt and pepper and rub it into the surface of the meat. Wrap each chop in a slice of prosciutto.

Place a saute pan over high heat for 2-3 minutes until a few droplets of water dropped into the skillet sizzle away in a few seconds. Add the the oil and let it get hot. Add the chops and leave then undisturbed for two minutes. They should release easily from the pan at that time. Turn them over and brown the other side.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the wine and garlic. Cook until the wine is almost completely reduced, turning the chops occassionally. Add the beef broth, cover, and turn the heat to low. Cook for about 15 minutes, turning the chops occassionally. When the chops are done, they will read 150F on an instant-read thermometer.(The center of each chop should be just the barest hint of pink)

Remove the chops from the pan, put them on a plate and tent with foil. Turn the heat up on the sautee pan, scrape the yummy blackened bits from the bottom, and let the liquid reduce a bit. Cut the butter into about 8 small pieces. When the sauce has reached the desired consistency, remove the pan from the heat and whisk in the butter a few pieces at a time. Add the lemon juice. Pour over chops.

Sear-Roasting

So just how did I get that thick pork chop so juicy? The answer is sear-roasting.

Sear-roasting is a two-step technique. First you sear or brown the meat in a saute pan on the stovetop, not worrying about how done it is in the middle. The objective of this step is to get the surface of the meat or fish nicely browned. This also seals the juices inside. Then you put the whole pan into the oven for a few minutes to finish cooking the interior of the meat.

Frankly this is my favorite technique for thick cuts of meat. For example, last weekend I made prociutto-wrapped pork chops. I found some very nice one-inch-thick boneless chops at the supermarket.

While the recipe called for cooking the prosciutto-wrapped chops in a skillet, it is likely that by the time the interior of the chop was cooked, the surface of it would be far too done and the prosciutto would be inedible. Sear-roasting on the other hand allows you to control the doneness of both the exterior and the interior of the meat.

Sear-roasting does require two pieces of equipment:

• A saute pan with an oven-proof handle
• A remote thermometer

I have a Viking 3.5qt saute pan with steel handles on both sides. This allows me to to easily heft the heavy pan in and out of the oven securely.

My thermometer is the pyrex model shown here. I prefer the remote thermometer because it eliminates repeatedly opening the oven to check the temperature, heating the house as well as losing some heat in the oven.

To sear-roast, preheat the oven to 425F and put your saute pan over medium-high heat on the stovetop. Check the temperature of the pan by dribbling a few water droplets into it. If they sizzle away in 1-2 seconds the pan is hot enough. Add a couple of tablespoons of a high smoke point oil like tea oil, grapeseed oil, or a mixture of olive oil and butter. Swirl the oil around in the pan and then add the meat or fish.

The important thing now is to let the meat or fish cook for 2-3 minutes without touching it. The meat will stick to the pan at first. After 2-3 minutes use a spatula to gently lift a corner of the meat. It should be nicely browned and release easily from the pan (If you are to impatient you will ruin that nice browned crust). Flip the meat or fish over and cook it for another 1-2 minutes, then move the whole thing to the oven, insert the thermometer probe, and close the door.

Patience. Wait until the thermometer reaches the approriate temperature:

Salmon: 135F
Chicken: 165F
Pork: 145F
Beef: 130F=medium rare, 140F=medium, 150F=medium well, 160F=well done

When the approriate temperature is reached, remove from the oven and serve.

Of course, the next logical step would be to make a pan sauce from those brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. After removing the meat, put the pan over high heat and add 1/2 cup white wine. The brown bits will release easily (making the pan a cinch to clean later).

A Hint About Prosciutto

While the supermarket usually stocks pre-sliced prosciutto in vacuum-sealed containers, I have found that the slices are too small and too thin to be workable. I go to my local Italian deli where he slices off nice big slices while I wait. Supermarket procsiutto is usually too thin to work with. If you are going to use it to roll up for an appetizer or to wrap another piece of meat, you want the slices to be about 1/16 inch thick. The paper-thin slices are too fragile and will break.