A nice pairing

[Glenn E.]

My wife and I had a friend over for dinner last night and used the occasion to attempt to duplicate a meal we had several times while in Portugal. Every little corner restaurant seems to offer Lombo Assado - roast pork loin - and every one we tried was fabulous. I also had a 1985 Sandeman that I wanted to open for myself, and we had a bottle of 1997 Duas Quintas Reserva that Roy gave us, so we were in good shape for a "typical" Portugese dinner. I also had a poached pears recipe that I wanted to try.

The Duas Quintas Reserva was a perfect compliment to the meal. I can't say the same for the 1985 Sandeman and the poached pears, mostly because the pears were super sweet and the Sandeman just couldn't keep up. However it made for a perfect "after dessert" course while we sat around talking and looking at pictures!

Lombo Assado
2 lbs pork loin
1 onion
3-5 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp mustard powder
1 Tbsp rosemary
4 Tbsp butter
2 cups white wine, divided
1 cup chicken broth (or 1 cup water and a boullion cube)
1 lb new potatoes
2 Tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Make a coarse paste out of the onion, garlic, mustard powder, and rosemary using a food processor. Combine the paste and the pork loin in a large ziplock bag, making sure that the paste coats all exterior surfaces of the pork loin, and put it in your refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

Scrub clean the new potatoes but don't remove the skin.

Remove the pork loin from the ziplock bag but do not clean off any excess paste. Brown the pork loin in the butter for 2-3 minutes per side on medium high - just to brown the surface but not cook the meat. Salt and pepper the loin to taste while browning. Place the browned pork loin in a roasting pan and set aside. Add 1 cup of the white wine to the browning pan and about half of the remaining paste from the ziplock bag (roughly half a cup). Bring to a boil and simmer for 4-5 minutes, scraping up any browned bits in the pan.

Coat the new potatoes with the olive oil and arrange in the roasting pan with the pork loin, then pour the wine and paste mixture over the top of everything. Bake in a 350 degree oven, uncovered, until internal temperature on the loin reaches 180 degrees (approx 50 minutes).

Place the pork loin and potatoes on a serving dish. Add the remaining cup of white wine and the cup of broth to the roasting pan and bring to a boil on the stove, scraping up any browned bits as you go. Pour into a gravy boat and serve with the loin and potatoes.

Pears Poached in Port
Bartlett Pears (one per person, up to six)
2 cups Ruby Port
2 sticks cinnamon
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp whole cloves
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

Gently clean the pears and then cut off the bottoms so that they'll stand upright on their own. Leave the stems attached.

Place the pears in a deep pan along with the Port, cinnamon, allspice, cloves, and lemon juice. Arrange the pears in the pan standing up, but also so that a lid can be placed on the pan. (I used a small 3.5-qt stock pot.) Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to barely a simmer. Cover and simmer for 1 hour.

Carefully remove the pears from the pan (the stems work well) and place on serving dishes. Add the brown sugar to the Port mixture and bring to a boil for 5-7 minutes or until the mixture begins to turn syrupy. Remove from heat and allow to cool for a few minutes, then spoon sauce over the pears and serve.

WARNING: even after 5-7 minutes the pears will still be HOT in the center.

[Frederick Blais]

Hmmm looks very tasty!! It would be interesting to have some photos of your set up in the pan and of course the final results!

[Glenn E.]

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures... I'll remember next time!

[Roy Hersh]

Sounds like a fine recipe Glenn and also I am glad the wines worked so well. I look forward to drinking together upon my return in a couple of weeks. Maria Theresa at AVEPOD had very nice things to say about you and your family. It sounds like you got to know here shop quite well.

Cheers!

[Kris Henderson]

Hi Glenn,

You provided inspiration for last nights dinner and tonights leftovers. I'd make just one change to the recipe. The pork loin should be pulled out of the oven at about 145 to 150 degrees instead of 180. I let it go until 180 and it didn't get tender like a pork shoulder will. I think because a pork loin doesn't have very much fat, it needs to be cooked to a lower temperature. The center portion was good but the ends were dry and a little tough. Overall, I was pleased and will try it again. I uploaded some pictures in the portraits section.

Though it's off-topic, I drank a 2005 Domaine Cosse Maisonneuve Cahors La Fage with the meal and it was a reasonably good pairing.

Here are the pictures

Ingredients


Out of the Oven


On the Table


On the Plate

[Roy Hersh]

Kris,

Would you mind please dropping the size of your photos to something more reasonable? Much appreciated!

Roy

[Glenn E.]

Kris, that looks excellent!

In retrospect I agree with you - our loin ended up fine cooked to 180 degrees, but the leftovers are quite dry. Next time I will try it at 145 as you suggest as your analysis sounds spot on. The original recipe I was working from called for an untrimmed loin which would have had significantly more fat on it, but I couldn't find one of those at QFC and so used a trimmed loin. The lack of extra fat is what probably lends it to a lower and slower cooking style.

Roy, I think Maria Theresa was the highlight of our trip. My parents very much took a liking to her, and she was fantastically helpful and friendly. I think we stopped by her shop at least once a day every day that we were in Porto! She recommended some fabulous wines and Ports for us and managed to get me an entire box of the IVDP-labeled Port tasting glasses. I have her card and will be ordering from her in the future!

[Kris Henderson]

Kris,

Would you mind please dropping the size of your photos to something more reasonable? Much appreciated!

Roy

Hi Roy,

I thought 640 x 425 at about 40KB was pretty small but if you'll define "reasonable" I'd be happy to adjust.

Kris

[Kris Henderson]

I edited my post to link to the small version of the pictures. Hopefully it is reasonable.

[Roy Hersh]

Thank you Kris. Those are perfect sizes and your cooperation is very much appreciated.

[Moses Botbol]

145 is correct for pork loin. Sounds like a good easy to make meal for a family & friends.