Saturday, Pacific Rim, Busy Week.

This time our Saturday dinner with our friends came to fruition. The food was delicious with the main course featured a fruit stuffed pork loin which was delicious. As usual our talk ranged over quite a few subjects not least of which was our various aches and pains or illnesses. How the mighty have fallen when one of the main topics of conversation is one’s health. I recommended the Actipatch to them which I am still very pleased with. I have ordered two more and Matt has promised to try one when it arrives.

I read that yet another volcanic eruption has happened, this time in Chile on Saturday luckily no injuries http://tinyurl.com/3u3xjym it seems to me that the earth is really in turmoil at the moment, especially around the Pacific Rim of Fire. Practically every time one checks on the news there are reports of quakes or eruptions. We are also getting news of tornados of course just to make sure the people who aren’t in the volcanic area don’t feel left out. Meteorologists are predicting a very active hurricane season this year too, hopefully not ones which hit land.

We have a very busy week ahead not least of which is my pre-op on Thursday for my angioplasty the following week. Then we are going down to Niagara-on-the-Lake on Friday to meet up with a couple of friends plus the cyber friends we have never met who are over here from South Africa. I am really looking forward to that.

This is not the recipe we were served on Saturday, but it sounds like a pretty good one.

Fruit Stuffed Pork Loin Roast

Loin of pork, butterflied.

1/4 Cup dried cranberries

1/4 Cup prunes

1/4 Cup dried apricots

1/4 Cup Sultana raisins

2 Peaches peeled, pitted and diced up(or use canned slices diced up)

2 Granny Smith or other firm apples, peeled, cored and diced up

2 Shallots finely minced

1/4 Cup ground walnuts

2 or 3 Cloves roasted garlic

3 Cups (Approximately) homemade croutons

2 Cups unsweetened apple juice

fresh Italian parsley chopped up

sage

thyme

salt

pepper

Peach Brandy & Apple Schnapps

DIRECTIONS

-Night before you will be making roast, take all the dried fruit and chop up to the size of raisins.

Put the dried fruit and the diced peaches into a glass bowl and cover generously with the brandy and schnapps so the fruit can re-constitute. Cover bowl with plastic and place in refrigerator overnight.

- Prior to stuffing roast, remove fruit from fridge and drain off the liquid, reserving it for use later.

- In a large bowl add; shallots, apple and roasted garlic.

Give it all a good mix to mush up the garlic...you can add a little of the liquid to help it along.

- Add the ground walnuts to the mix and stir it all together.

It should resemble a liquid like paste...once again add a little of the reserved liquid if necessary to get the consistency.

- Add the sage, thyme and chopped parsley to your liking.

Fresh sage and thyme are best but dried work as well. Give everything a mix again.

- Add the croutons and mix to incorporate everything.

- Add in the re-constituted fruit to the mix and once again give it a good mixing.

You can save some of the fruit to add to the reduction used to de-glaze the pan or to nibble on while roast is in oven.

- The stuffing mix should look and feel moist but not wet.

Adjust the moisture by adding more of the reserved liquid if necessary.

- Take the "butterflied" roast and spread out on work surface.

- Take the stuffing mix and place onto the roast.

You can either spread the mixture evenly over roast to give you a "pinwheel" effect when sliced or make a loaf in centre of roast that will be completely surrounded by meat when sliced.

- Take the roast and roll it up. Use butcher's twine to tie up the roast at 2" intervals.

- In a large frying pan or dutch oven, sear the roast on all sides in hot oil.

Remove and place in a roasting pan once seared.

- Add 2 cups of unsweetened apple juice to pan and cover with foil wrap.

Place roast in preheated oven to roast at 350 degrees.

Remove the foil about 45 minutes into the roasting.

Baste with the juices as needed.

- The roast is done when internal temperature reaches 160 degrees.

Remove roast to platter and tent with foil.

- De-glaze the pan with some of the reserved liquid and transfer this to a saucepan with the remaining unused liquid (and fruit if any was reserved).

Cook down the mixture to your desired thickness. You can add brown sugar to sweeten it up more if you wish.

Pour a little of the reduction over each slice when serving.

Have a great day