Cooking Again!

Sunday, my parents came over for dinner. I cooked a real meal. Not a Healthy Choice in the plastic bowl meal. A real, honest-to-goodness meal.

I could not even look at another piece of chicken, and red meat would not be kind to my stomach, so I went searching for the recipe for the other white meat - pork.

A while ago, someone recommended to me I purchase a cookbook from this place in Rochester, NY called the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que. The recipes in this book are simply amazing, and for mere mortals like me, easy to follow.

The following is the meal I made for my parents. It is from the cookbook called Dinosaur Bar B Que: An American Roadhouse. I used two substitutions, mostly out of necessity. The sauce, by the way, is so delicious, I believe it could be used for to snazzy up chicken breasts, too.

Apple-Maple Roasted Pork Loin

Ingredients

The Pork
1 pork loin with the rib bones attached, 3 1/2 to 4 pounds (I had to get a pork loin without the rib bones - my local store said they don't do the cut until the holidays)

The Rub
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon freshly cracked black pepper
Pinch of cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil

The Sauce (this is wonderful)
1/4 cup butter
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
Pinch each of kosher salt and black pepper
1 pound McIntosh apples, peeled, cored, and diced
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
3/4 cup Mutha Sauce (I didn't have the time to make this, so I used 3/4 cup of A1's Chicago Steakhouse Marinade)
1/4 cup water

The Garnish
3 tablespoons sliced scallion (I didn't use this)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. Get the butcher to cut the chine bone from the roast for easy carving later. Mix up all the ingredients for the rub, and massage it all over the roast. Place the roast, rib side down, in a roasting pan and pop it in the oven. Cook for 30 to 40 minutes to caramelize the outside, then lower the heat to 350 degrees F and continue roasting slowly for another 25 - 30 minutes, til the internal temperature registers 150 degrees F.

Throw together the sauce while the pork is roasting. Melt the butter in a saucepan. Toss in the garlic and jalapenos with a pinch of salt and pepper, cooking til soft. Dump in the apples and give then a stir. Cook til soft but not mushy, 8 - 10 minutes. Add the maple syrup, cinnamon, allspice, Mutha Sauce (or in my case A1), and water, and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Keep warm.

Take the roast out of the oven and let it rest for 15 minutes. Slice the meat between the ribs into chops. Pour any meat juices that ooze out while carving into the sauce and stir it up a bit. Ladle some sauce onto each chop and sprinkle with scallions. Serve 'em up and pass the remaining sauce at the table. Feeds 6.