Molasses Glazed Pork with Gravy, Sage Dressing Muffins and Apple Salsa

Each issue of Cuisine Magazine starts out with the major recipe for the issue, and honestly, it's the dish I probably look forward to making the most often.  This issue's recipe was an elaborate meal which included a pork loin roast that was glazed with molasses and served with gravy made from the pan drippings, a dressing and a little bit of fruit topping.

I had to improvise a bit with some things in this recipe, however, it worked out beautifully.  The first improvisation was with how I cooked the pork.  The key to any good gravy is the vegetable base.  For this one it included onions, carrots, celery and garlic.  The recipe called for the the pork and vegetables to be roasted off together for about 90 minutes.  Because I couldn't find the type of pork loin called for in the recipe I actually roasted the veggies by themselves for about 30 minutes.

With the veggies prepped and cut, they went into a roasting pan with some olive oil and salt and pepper.

While the vegetables for the pork were roasting I started the prep for the dressing.  Really pretty simple dressing, sage, parsley, celery, onion, salt and pepper.  This was the flavoring for the dressing I had already prepped the bread portion of the evening.

I sauteed off the onions and celery with some salt and pepper in a bit of oil.  Once the onions and celery were cooked the sage and parsley went in for a few minutes.

The cooked onions, celery and herbs were mixed together with the bread and went into a ramekin to be baked in the oven until golden brown and delicious.

The stuff for the glaze, molasses which you probably expected from the name of the dish.  But the surprise ingredient, currant jelly.

Next up was the apple salsa garnish.  Braeburn apple, more of the current jelly, salt, lemon, parsley and a bit of butter.

All the prep now done, I seasoned the pork with salt and pepper and then seared it off.  This is the pork having completed the initial cooking process. From here the pork went on top of the veggies that had been pre-roasted in the oven.

While the pork was in the oven I made the apple salsa.  I diced up the apple and sauteed it off in some of the butter.

After the apple had cooked down the rest of the salsa ingredients went in where the jelly and sugar and lemon juice made a bit of syrup.

The porok was in the oven for about 30 minutes and was basted with some of the molasses-currant glaze every ten minutes or so.  The pork was covered in some tin foil and I allowed it to rest while I finished the rest of the meal.

The first step in the homestretch of the meal is the gravy.  The gravy needed, tomato paste, bay leaves, sherry, chicken broth, apple juice pepper corns and butter.

So I took the roasting pan where the veggies and pork cooked and added the tomato paste and let it sautee some and then deglazed the pan with the chicken broth and sherry.  The whole mixture reduced for a bit before the bay leaves and peppercorns were added.  The final step was to melt some butter into the sauce to finish.

The final plate.  Given that I didn't have the center cut pork loin and was totally winging how long to cook the pork I was so happy when it came out with that perfect pink hugh.  Pretty sure this dish would win major accolades on cooking competitions if I do say so myself.