Connie’s notes
When I started food blogging, I also started to accumulate cookbooks. I couldn’t enter a bookstore without buying a cookbook. As a result, I gave my husband a cookbook for Christmas in 2007. I have always firmly believed that cooking is a life skill rather than a gender-based chore, after all.
It was a cookbook for dudes, really (Gentlemen, Start Your Ovens: Killer Recipes for Guys by Tucker Shaw). And there were recipes that intrigued him. Tequila pork loin was one of them. It would take him three months to muster the energy to make it but the result was, well… shall we say I didn’t mind the three-month wait.
This recipe is an adaptation of what you’ll find in Tucker Shaw’s cookbook. The prep and cooking processes have been considerably modified and the following substitutions were made:
- Dried rosemary for fresh
- Lemons for limes
- Pork loin in lieu of pork tenderloins
- Butter in place of olive oil for searing
Ingredients
- 1 kilogram pork loin (2.2 pounds)
- 4 tablespoons rock salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¼ cup tequila
- ¼ cup olive oil not extra virgin
- 6 cloves garlic peeled and lightly pounded
- 2 onions peeled and cut into eighths
- 2 lemons cut into eighths
- 1 finger chili sliced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- ½ cup apricot jam
- 3 to 4 pinches dried rosemary soaked in a tablespoon of olive oil
Instructions
- Rinse the pork loin and rub dry with a kitchen towel. Using a metal skewer or a long and very thin kife, poke holes into the meat (this is to ensure that the seasonings go all the way inside).
- Rub the salt and pepper all over the meat.
- Drop the meat into a resealable bag. Pour in the tequila and olive oil. Drop in the garlic, onions, chili slices and lemons.
- Seal the bag and turn over several times to distribute the seasonings, spices and lemon.
- Marinate the pork loin in the fridge overnight.
- Take the pork loin out of the bag (discard everything else including the bag) and leave to drain on a rack as it warms to room temperature.
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- Heat the butter in an overproof frying pan.
- Slide in the pork and sear on all sides.
- Off the heat, with the fatty side of the pork pointing to the ceiling, slash the pork loin diagonally. The slash should be at least an inch and a half deep. Go deeper if your slab of meat is really thick. Three to four slashes about an inch and a half apart is ideal.
- Stuff those slashes with apricot jam. Sprinkle the rosemary (minus the soaking oil) on top.
- Pop the pork into the preheated oven and cook for 40 to 50 minutes (depending on the thickness of the meat).
- Slide the pork loin to a chopping board, cover loosely with foil, leave to rest for ten minutes, and slice thickly.
- We like our tequila pork loin with mashed potatoes and buttered corn.
Crispy fried chicken fillets with pineapple sauce
