I'm baaaaack!
One year later, 3rd kid added, and a day-to-day life that does not afford me much time to think about cooking. However, I DO still pine for the desire to do it and I'm still constantly scouring magazines, the Food Network, and/or the internet for simple and yummy recipes. Emphasis on the SIMPLE!
The credit goes to my hubs for this particular recipe as we were having my parents over this past Sunday and trying to find a last minute idea on how to spice up the ol' Sunday afternoon 'roast'. He googled pork recipes and of COURSE was delighted to find one that included one of his favorite winter lagers.
LOVE that it only has 3 ingredients (well possibly 5 but I'll get to that) and if your husband is a winter dark beer drinker-as mine is- then you should have all of these ingredients on hand at a moments notice.
So here you go:
10 oz Guiness beer - bottles are actually 11 oz so go ahead & swig that last ounce while you're cooking ;)
8 oz Brown Sugar ( or less, if you don't want it as sweet)
3 oz Honey
*Pinch of Red Pepper Flakes.* This is optional if you want a 'kick', which we did. It was a nice addition but not necessary.
** Put ingredients in a saucepan on medium heat, bring to a slow boil and make a Reduction.
Laymans terms: Cook the sauce down by half until it thickens a bit and becomes glazey. Remove from heat.
Set aside about 3-4 TBS of the glaze and use the rest to glaze the pork while it cooks.
We baked our loin at 275 for an hour and a half and then bumped it up to 325 for another hour. It was fantabulously tender!! (A meat thermometor reading 160 degrees internally will indicate that the roast is done) I turned the roast constantly each time I glazed it, about every 1/2 hour or so.
When the meat is done, remove from the rack and put the roast pan on the stovetop. Heat up the drippings in the bottom and add the glaze you set aside earlier. Add a "splash" of either Water, White Wine (which we used), or Champagne (do people really just have bottles of champagne sitting around? Perhaps in Europe they do, since this was an English recipe). Anyways, whisk the whole concoction together and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, and pour into a sauce/gravy boat and serve with the meat. There will not be much sauce but what you do have is SO Yum.
Enjoy my friends! And thanks for encouraging me to come back. It feels good and I'll try to keep up. :)
