INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Prepare pork and stuffing: Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-low
heat. Add onions; cook, stirring often, until softened and golden brown,
about 15 minutes. Add dried apples, cider and wine. Bring to a boil. Reduce
heat to low, cover, and cook until the apples are no longer chewy but
retain some texture, about 20 minutes. If the liquid cooks off before the
apples are done, add more cider or juice; if liquid remains in the pan when
the apples are done, boil it off. The mixture must be very dry. Remove from
heat. Stir in bread crumbs. Mixture must be stiff enough to hold its shape
when formed into a ball. Add sage, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Position a rack
in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Make 14
incisions in pork loin. Toss together garlic, sage, salt and pepper. Stuff
the incisions with the herbed garlic; rub the remaining herb mixture over
the roast. Turn the roast fat-side down. Make a long, straight cut
lengthwise down the center of the loin just to the center of the meat.
Then, starting inside that cut and holding the knife at a slight angle,
make a cut to the left and a cut to the right, both about 1 1/2 inches
deep. This is called a "Y" cut, because if you could see a cross section of
the meat, it would look like an inverse "Y." Spread about 2 cups of the
stuffing inside the roast; reshape the roast. (Bake extra stuffing in a
buttered dish with the roast.) Tie the roast at 2-inch intervals and place
it upside-down on a rack in a roasting pan. Roast for 10 minutes. Reduce
the oven temperature to 250 degrees; roast for about 1 hour. Then turn the
roast right-side up and cook until a meat thermometer inserted in the
thickest part of the meat registers 150 to 155 degrees, 10 to 20 minutes
more (the temperature will continue to rise about 5 degrees out of the
oven). While the pork roasts, prepare sauce: In a saucepan, combine apples
and cider. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer until
translucent, about 20 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve or food mill set
over a bowl, pushing the apple pulp through with a spoon if using a sieve.
Return the liquid and apple pulp to the saucepan. Add sugar. Bring to a
boil, then reduce the heat and cook until it thickens and begins to
sputter, 10 to 15 minutes. When the roast is done, remove to a cutting
board, cover loosely with aluminum foil, and let stand for 15 minutes. Skim
off the fat from the pan juices, place the roasting pan over medium heat,
and add cognac. Bring to a boil, stirring to loosen and dissolve any
browned bits, then add the liquid to the apple puree and boil down if
necessary to thicken. Stir in butter. Season to taste with lemon juice,
salt and pepper. Slice the pork, pour the sauce over the slices, and serve.
Yields 6 servings.
Comments: This recipe calls for a lesson in dried apples, which can vary
greatly in tenderness and moisture content. The natural variety, sold at
health-food stores, requires longer cooking and more liquid than
supermarket dried apples. Some natural dried apples balloon during cooking,
producing half again as much stuffing as you need. Any extra stuffing can
be baked in a small casserole alongside the pork and basted with a little
butter, apple juice or chicken stock, the cookbook authors suggest.
Recipe Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch - 10-26-1998
continued in part 2

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