Tuesday, March 01, 2011

Pork Roast with Orange Apricot Lemongrass Gastrique

While I was relaxing on the sofa with a cup of tea and a pile of magazines, a recipe for blood orange gastrique jumped out at me from the pages of Bon Appetit. Sometimes, when a recipe gets my attention, I have to make it immediately, if not sooner. I had defrosted a small four-chop pork roast for dinner and had no clear idea of how I would serve it. At the time, it was in the fridge luxuriating in a bath of soy sauce, garlic, mirin, and lemongrass paste. Would not a blood orange gastrique go nicely with an Asian-marinated piece of meat?

We didn't have blood oranges, but we had orange juice, so I followed the recipe except for that substitution. After the sauce had reduced to about half a cup, I added a pinch of powdered ginger, a tablespoon of apricot preserves, and a teaspoon of lemongrass paste.

As for the meat, I decided to follow the cooking instructions for a slow-roasted pork loin in the Joy of Cooking. The recipe states that a 3-lb boneless roast should take about 1 1/2 hours. I figured that my 2-lb bone-in roast would take about as much time. Wrong. After reaching an internal temperature of only 118F at the 90-minute mark, I cranked the oven temperature up to 350F. About 45 minutes later, it was finally done. Crazy!

Along with the gastrique, I served the pork with an arugula, butter lettuce, and pear salad, and some Trader Joe's Thai-style Lime Rice. It all worked quite nicely together.



6 comments:

Kristine said...

You had me at pork roast...

Nakiya @ Taste of Baltimore said...

Amazing!! Wow that looks good.

Kristine said...

Where do you get the lemongrass paste? Brand? I can get fresh, but have never seen a paste.

theminx said...

I usually use Gourmet Gardens lemongrass paste, as I never seem to have luck with getting any real flavor out of the fresh stuff. I've found the brand carried in the produce section in every major supermarket in the Baltimore area.

Amazon also sells a different brand: http://www.amazon.com/GourmetFoodStore-Organic-Lemon-Grass-Paste/dp/B001NCCOLM

Kristine said...

Thanks. I'll look for it. I now have access to a Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, so I'll look there first.

theminx said...

Hmm...maybe Whole Foods has it, but Trader Joe's doesn't. I buy it at Safeway, Giant, Superfresh....