French-Style Pot-Roasted Pork Loin
I got an issue of Cooks Illustrated a few months ago which featured a French style Pork Loin Pot Roast, since then I’ve been dying to cook one. For Crystal’s birthday I decided to take the plunge on my cooking skills and my wallet and venture out and make it. I paired it with vegetable medley consisting of: roasted beets, watermelon radishes, broccoli and a squash; garlic mashed potatoes and a few bottles of white wine from Bargetto Winery in Soquel (where we are getting married).
On to the recipe
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 2 pieces
- 6 garlic cloves, sliced thin
- 1 4lb boneless center-cut pork loin
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 teaspoons herbes de Provence
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and cut into 1/4in pieces
- 1 onion, chopped fine
- 1/3 cup cup dry white wine (I used a chardonay)
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1/4-3/4 cup chicken broth
- 1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parley
The first step involves double butterflying the roast, which seemed a bit daunting at first. Thankfully, Cooks Illustrated has a handy guide in the back of the issue on how to do it properly. Cut it open once, then again… seems easy enough right? It should look like this:
If it’s not quite flat, take a meat tenderizer and make it even. Next coat it with salt and a bit of sugar. Then make your garlic butter sauce to coat the inside of the roast. Adding fat to the roast, gives the American pork loins a bit more marbling like a typical French loin would have. Once you’ve added your garlic butter in the center, fold up the roast and tie it off.
Coat your now tied off roast evenly in Herbes de Provence and pepper, then stick it in your dutch oven a brown the fat side and the two sides, DO NOT brown the bottom of the roast, you need that to be raw, as it will be the side down while it cooks in the oven.
5-7min later, pull the roast out and let it cool. Next toss your onions and apple in the pot with a table spoon of oil. Wait till your onions are soft and toss garlic, fresh thyme, bay leaf and wine into the pot. Let it simmer and put your roast back into the pot. Seal it off with foil, put the lid on and stick that beautiful looking roast into the oven.
Your oven should be at 225 degrees and it will take about 2 hours in the oven. Wait till your meat thermometer hits 140, then pull it out. Take the roast out, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 20min. While this is happening, it’s time to get to work on our Au Jus.
“While the pork rests, sprinkle gelatin over 1/4 cup of chicken broth and take out the thyme sprigs and bay leaf from the jus.” Pour the gelatin, another 1/4 cup of broth, and a table spoon of butter into the pot, let it simmer and add salt and pepper to taste. Slice your pork and serve.
