Roast Pork Loin with Apples

The last time I made this dish was a couple Thanksgivings ago. When my family drove six hours to spend Thanksgiving at my little apartment, I decided to do something different. We generally don't eat a lot so we always have so many leftovers when we cook a turkey that we don't even finish later in the week. I thought I could find just a breast but everybody likes the dark meat anyway. I went for pork. I know we are not even close to Thanksgiving right now so why am I sharing this dish? I wanted to eat pork this week and was looking for recipes when I rediscovered this one so I made it again for dinner.



This is a super easy dish that you don't have to save for a special occasion. You can make it on a weekday. It yields a juicy, not-at-all dry piece of pork and yummy apples to go with it. I guess I'm a fan of pork with fruit if you recall the Pork Chops with Whiskied Pears and Thyme that I cooked for Christmas one year.



The recipe says that you can also puree the apples and onions for a gravy-type sauce, but I've always just left them as I like eating the chunks. The Fuji apples I used for this recipe were cooked to a perfect level of sweetness. And since I got a Dutch oven this past Christmas, I had the perfect pot that the pork loin could fit into. It was a small but long piece so it disappeared quick. (As you can tell, I piled up my dish quite a bit.) It's an easy dish for a potluck - give it a try!



Roast Pork Loin with Apples
From Jul's Kitchen

Boneless pork loin, with some trace of fat, about 600 to 700 g
Sea ​​salt
Ground black pepper
Extra virgin olive oil
1 knob of butter
2 cloves of garlic
3 apples
1 white onion
1/ 2 cup of white wine

Tie the pork loin with a twine (I skipped this step as my pork loin was one big piece and did not need to be held together). Rub the meat with sea salt and ground black pepper to flavour the pork.

Put a few tablespoons of olive oil and a knob of butter on the bottom of a cast iron skillet (I used a Dutch oven) and let melt the butter over high heat. Add two cloves of crushed garlic.

Place the pork loin into the hot olive oil and let it brown on each side, turning the meat with two wooden spoons as soon as it gets golden brown. You are going to use wooden spoons or spatulas not to prick your beautiful piece of pork: you want the meat to be completely sealed by the heath of the olive oil on the outside and all the juices to be kept inside, to have a tasty and juicy roast! It will take about 10 minutes.

Pour in half a glass of white wine over the pork loin and let almost all the wine evaporate. Now reduce the heat and add the peeled apples and onions, all cut into wedges. Stir with a wooden spoon to coat the apples and the onion with the olive oil and cover the pot with a lid, then cook the meat over medium heat for about 25 up to 30 minutes, checking it occasionally.

Remove the meat from the cast iron pot, wrap it with aluminum foil and let it rest.

In the meantime, turn up the heat under the pan with the apples and cook for 5 minutes over high heat to reduce the sauce: you can serve the meat, cut into thin slices, with the apples and the onions just as they are out of the pot, caramelized and soft, or you can purée them to dress the meat with a creamy and sweet gravy.