My Michigan Wine Tasting Party, Part 4: Pomegranate and Orange-Glazed Pork

Out of all the food I made for the wine tasting, this is the only one that made me think, “Wow, this is kind of fussy.” Looking at it again – it’s so clearly NOT (perhaps the fact that I was cooking 7 dishes skewed my perspective a bit…?). With a little advance planning, this makes a fantastic grilled dinner, nice enough for company but easy enough for a weeknight. The key is to remember to start the marinade the night before; you can also make the basting sauce in advance and keep it in the fridge until you need it.

A word about pomegranate molasses: This is pomegranate juice which has been reduced to a thick, molasses-like consistency. You can find it in the ethnic food section of some grocery stores, though we get ours from the local Middle Eastern market. This is such a great ingredient to have on hand – it makes its way into all sorts of sauces and salad dressings and marinades. We also mix it with a little simple syrup and add some sparkling water for a tart iced drink, and add it to lemonade for extra color and a pop of flavor. I blogged a recipe from the marvelous Tori Avey a couple of years ago with roasted Brussels sprouts drizzled with pomegranate molasses. Honestly, it’s so good – go buy some. You’ll use it everywhere.

This is another recipe from Perfect Pairings, which is one of the very few cookbooks that’s made me want to cook every single recipe in it. I’ve modified it slightly to make more basting sauce, since the original recipe didn’t have nearly enough to suit me. I also didn’t include cooking times, since it’s going to depend on whether you have a pork roast or pork tenderloins (and yes, this would also be brilliant on pork chops, which will cook even faster).

We tried a couple of different wines with this and they were all very good, so I feel like you can really go with whatever makes you happy. In love with a Riesling right now? It would be very good. Have a nice lighter Pinot Noir itching to make an appearance? Bust it out. In the end I went with my I-can’t-decide-what-to-pour/go-to wine: a rose, specifically Chateau deLeelanau Cabernet Franc Rose, which I think is the most perfect springtime wine ever. Here's a picture of me at work, posed with it. I didn't see it for sale on CDL's website, so you'll just have to come visit me at work and buy some there if you'd like to try it. 

Pomegranate and Orange-Glazed Pork

MARINADE
½ cup orange juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh grated ginger
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons hot mustard
Grated zest of 1 orange
2 teaspoons finely minced garlic 

BASTING SAUCE
1 cup fresh orange juice
6 tablespoons honey
6 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
4 tablespoons soy sauce
4 tablespoons reserved marinade 

1 3-lb pork roast or 2  1 ½ pound pork tenderloins

Combine the marinade ingredients and reserve 4 tablespoons to add to the sauce. Coat the meat with the marinade (a large Ziploc is perfect for this) and refrigerate overnight. Let the meat come to room temperature for 30 minutes before you start cooking.

Whisk together the basting sauce ingredients. Set aside ¼ cup of the sauce.

Grill or broil the pork loin, turning and basting frequently, until the internal temperature reaches 140. Obviously the time for this is going to vary quite a bit depending on what kind of meat you’re using, but it took less than 15 minutes to do the tenderloins under the broiler.

When the meat is done, transfer it to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes. While the meat is resting, put the reserved basting sauce into a small saucepan; bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer until the sauce is reduced by half and is a nice syrupy consistency (you can also do this in advance and just heat it a little bit before serving, but at this point you're probably in the kitchen finishing up your side dishes anyway).

Slice the meat thickly and spoon the reduced sauce over it. 

My Michigan Wine Tasting Party, Part 3: Chinese Chicken Salad in Wonton Cups

Posting the recipes from this event is going to take waaay longer than locating and cooking said recipes, what with the travelling and the beginning of the end-of-the-school-year madness and people at work getting sick so I’m working extra shifts and the weather sometimes getting nicer so I feel obligated to clean things in my house. The world is full of distractions these days.

It's surprisingly hard to take attractive pictures of food

This recipe is basically for a salad dressing, because it’s delicious and what you do with it is entirely up to you. I suspect a jar of this is going to live in our refrigerator for a while. I used it on chicken, chopped up and mixed with a little cucumber, green onion, and cilantro and served in wonton cups garnished with some black sesame seeds. The original recipe calls for lettuce and chopped veggies in addition to the chicken, making it an actual salad. It’s a hearty enough dressing that I can see using it on a flank steak on the grill, too.

It’s a pretty intense dressing, so less is more when you’re using it. Tweak the amounts to suit your own taste. The original recipe is from Perfect Pairings: A Master Sommelier's Practical Advice for Pairing Wine with Food by Evan Goldstein and Joyce Goldstein. As the name implies, it's a very straightforward look at food and wine pairings - and the recipes are just fantastic. Highly recommended reading. 

Chinese Chicken Salad Dressing

1 teaspoon finely minced garlic
3 tablespoons finely minced fresh peeled ginger (yes, use the stuff in jars, it’s a million times easier)
2 tablespoons hot mustard (I used Chinese hot mustard because it was in my fridge, but you could also swap out some dry mustard and add a little water)
1 tablespoon sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons white or rice vinegar
2 tablespoons sesame oil (the dark kind)
Salt to taste

Put everything in a Mason jar and shake to combine. I imagine it'll keep for a week or so in the fridge, but I found myself putting it on everything so it didn't make it that long. 

Wonton cups? Easiest thing ever (but not, alas, gluten-free. If you find GF wonton wrappers somewhere please let me know!).

Photo courtesy of Peninsula Cellars

Brush 2 wonton wrappers very (very, very) lightly with canola or peanut oil (any neutral oil will do). If you have a sprayer that actually sprays instead of dribbling, by all means use it – it’s easy to go overboard with the oil and then your cups will be chewy instead of crispy. Stack the wrappers, turning the top one a little so you get a nifty 8-pointed star, and press into a mini-muffin pan. You can press the corners down a little if you want a more flower-like shape, which means that you’ll only end up using every other cup in the muffin pan. Bake at 350 for 6-7 minutes or until they’re just a little golden brown; these can overcook really quickly so keep an eye on them. Put them on a rack to cool and store in an airtight container for up to 2 days.

I served this with Peninsula Cellars Manigold Vineyard Gewurztraminer, which more people would probably drink if they weren’t afraid of pronouncing it wrong. It turns out that Gewurztraminer is excellent with Asian food; it’s acidic enough to cut through the richness of the sesame oil and soy sauce, and it has a little spicy kick at the end that goes really well with the ginger. Gewurz tends to be very floral-smelling but that’s not to be confused with sweetness in the wine itself; I’ve been trying a lot of them lately and some are definitely sweeter than I prefer, but I’d definitely look for some drier Gewurz if you’re wondering what to serve with Asian food.