In case you’re wonderin’, yes, I really DO appreciate having a husband who likes to cook now and then on the weekends. Late last week he asked me to pull out a couple pork loins from the freezer and I knew something beautiful was happening in his brain. He’d been surfing the web for a good recipe and ended up adapting one from Food Network to make this divine Sunday dinner. (Food Network is also where he gets his inspiration for cooking, I love those people…) All four kids loved it, too – some liked it with, some without the sauce. To go with it we had salad and I also made a cheese sauce to go over some organic spinach ravioli we had in the freezer.
Pork Loin with Cranberry Wine Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup sea salt
- 1/2 cup palm or coconut sugar or other natural sugar
- 2 quarts water
- 4 Tablespoon gin
- 1 Tablespoon ground sage
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 4 cups water
- 2 cups ice
- 2 pastured pork loins about 2 pounds each (Here's where to order safe pastured meats online if you can't find a good local source.)
- 2 Tablespoons tallow or ghee for frying
- Serve with Red Wine Cranberry Sauce drizzled over the top – see below
Cranberry wine sauce ingredients:
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 3 cups dry red wine
- 2 oranges zested and juiced
- 1 cup palm or coconut sugar Next time I might try cutting this in half
Instructions
- In medium saucepan bring the salt, sugar and 2 cups water to a boil and simmer until salt and sugar dissolve. Remove from heat, add gin, sage and red pepper flakes. Let set 5 minutes. Pour 4 cups water and 2 cups ice into the brine in the pan. When brine is chilled, add the pork loins, cover and let them marinate in the fridge overnight.
- About an hour and a half or so before you’re ready to eat, preheat oven to 350*. Remove pork from marinade and pat dry. Heat tallow or ghee in a cast iron pan and brown the pork until all the sides are nicely caramelized. (A few minutes on each side.) Kent then put them into our big stoneware pan to cook the rest of the way in the oven. Try to use similar sized pork loins so they both are done at the same time. Bake between 45 minutes and an hour. We used a meat thermometer and pulled it out when it said 145* in the fattest part of the meat. This was perfect and made for moist, juicy yumminess! Let rest about 5 minutes after pulling it out of the oven before slicing.
Cranberry wine sauce:
- Combine in a medium saucepan, bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and cook until liquid is halved. We got too impatient and added in a small amount of organic corn starch mixed in water to make it thick. This made it more of a sauce instead of a reduction glaze, and it was SO good. (Although it made too much sauce so if you're going to make it like we did, you may want to cut it back some.)
- Serve the sauce over the pork and enjoy!
If you loved this pork loin with cranberry wine sauce please let me know in the comments or share your favorite way to cook a pork loin!
- More Real Food Main Dish Recipes
- Need some Friday Lenten Meal Ideas
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Melissa Walters says
My husband cooks breakfast most days and dinner on his days off.
NancyO says
Gin I don’t have…juniper berries I do! Thanks!
Kent says
The gin was a substitute for Juniper berries. We didn’t have any and I didn’t want to go to the store. I found it on line that gin would give the same flavor. Laziness is the mother of invention, right?
Renee says
I was wondering about the Gin too. 🙂
NancyO says
Showing my Ignorance here…does the gin add flavor to the marinade? Or does it serve some tenderizing purpose?