Peach Stuffed Pork served with Brussel Sprouts with Bacon and Gorgonzola

As you've heard, my friends Holly and David have an awesome kitchen. This is the same David who graciously taught us all to make bread. When Holly invited me to cook dinner at their place I, of course, said yes. It was so much fun! Cooking in a great kitchen is its own pleasure to me, but doing it with fun friends is the best. I cook alone so often and it is much more pleasurable to cook with other people hanging/helping out.

My mom canned all things peaches over the summer. Peach jam. Peach halves in syrup. And just peach syrup. The jam and peaches are long gone, as they were super delicious. But that peach syrup has been nagging at me. What to do with it? Serve it over pancakes? Or poured over cake? Then it hit me. PORK! That sound so yummy, right? I found a Martha Stewart recipe that sounded delicious and modified it. You can find the original recipe here. This is another one of those recipes that looks beautiful when you serve it, but takes minimal effort.

You'll need:
6 oz dried apricots
3 lb pork loin
peach sauce (you can make this if you don't have it on hand)
Cloves
course salt & pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon

I couldn't find dried peaches at the grocery store I went to the day of the dinner and bought dried apricots instead. Bring 1 cup water to a boil. While that comes up, rough chop the apricots, then add to the boiling water. Let the water return to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes. I drained the apricots when they were done and discarded the juice, because I already had the syrup. If you don't you'll use that juice to create your sauce, so hold onto it. The directions for that are in the original recipe.

Butterfly the pork loin by cutting horizonatlly lengthwise through the side, using short strokes, so that it opens up like a book. Then make a few shallow verticle cuts. With your pork laid out pound it until it's all even, if neccessary. A small cast iron skillet works great for that.  Mix a spice rub of salt, pepper and a dash of clove. I used whole cloves that David crushed in a mortar and pestle and it was so flavorful. Use half the spice rub to season the open side of your pork.

Spread the apricots out on the pork, leaving a 1 inch border on the long sides and one short side. Roll the pork up from the borderless side and secure with butcher's twine. Rub the remaining spices on the outside and dust with flour.

Place in a roasting pan or dutch oven, seam side down. Roast for 20 mins. Brush with glaze. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees and roast until a thermometer inserted into the center reaches 138 degrees, about 25 minutes. Brush with glaze again and roast another 5 minutes. Transfer pork to a platter, brush with glaze again and let rest for 10 minutes.

Combine syrup and pan juices and cook over medium high heat, scraping up brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add 1/4 cup of water and bring to a boil. Simmer 1 minute then stir in lemon juice. Untie pork and cut into 1" slices. Serve with sauce.

I really enjoyed this recipe. Pork is so good! I think the apricots are a little tart and sweet peaches would be better. I'll probably try it again with peaches. You can make your own dried peaches by slicing them 1/8" thick and laying them out on a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake them at 150 degrees for 3 hours.

For the brussel sprouts you'll need:
1 lb of brussel sprouts
4 strips of bacon
gorgonzola

I love brussel sprouts. If you read this blog regularly, you already know that. How do you improve on the near perfect brussel sprout? Cook it in bacon grease, that's how.

Start by trimming the stem ends of your sprouts and slicing them in half. Set them aside for now.

When I make bacon I flip it A LOT. Good bacon requires attention. I recommend medium low heat because it gives the bacon time to render without burning. There's a vocab word. Render: To reduce, convert, or melt down (fat) by heating. You want all that good bacon fat in your pan to cook the sprouts with. For this recipe, chop the bacon first. Cook over medium low heat, stirring frequently, until it reaches your desired crispiness. Once done, remove the bacon from the pan and place on a plate lined with paper towels.

Add the brussel sprouts to the pan with the bacon fat. Be careful becuase they will pop, as bacon does.  Cook until browned and fork tender. Remove from heat and toss with cooked bacon and gorgonzola. Serve warm.

We also had a salad with dressing Holly made from scratch. You'll hear about that another day. Let me know if you try this.