Red Wine Slow Cooked Pork Loin

The weather has fully turned to autumn and that means lots of slow cooker meals on those days I work from home. This week at the end of #winechat Marie (Life of Vines Blog & #winechat host) mentioned that the topic for next week’s chat will seasonal drinking and the shift to cooler weather. I’m not a seasonal drinker per se, but I do see the shift in action when I observe other people’s habits. In my post at CBS Boston earlier this year about Summer Beverage Trends I did share my thought on lighter beers and drinks with carbonation prevailing during the warm weather. I drink red wine and dark, heavy beers all year round, but the key for me is being able to serve red wine the right temperature, even in the heat. If you can’t, it isn’t worth wasting a good bottle of red wine served at 80 degrees!

I am a seasonal eater however, and the shift in recipes does involve cooking with red wine, something I did for the first time this season, this week. The meals are often heartier including root vegetables, reductions of the braising juices from the slow cooker and bread. Paired with an equally hearty red wine these meals are always quite satisfying.

This week I took a couple wines from Bonny Doon Vineyard for a spin, using one to cook three pounds of pork loin, and the other to pair with the finished product. I’ll review the wines first and then finish with the recipe for pork.

Le Cigare Volant 2007

Complex nose with lots of dark red and black fruits. Hints of warmth from the oak. Raspberry and plum in the mouth. There is also spice, earth and a vegetal character in the mouth. The complexity continues through the finish. Nice balance and it really demands to be enjoyed! I’ve heard plenty about this wine and was just too lazy up until recently to get some in house. This is a solid Rhone style blend from a California producer that I am just getting to know. A blend of 60% Grenache, 32% Syrah, 4% Mourvèdre and 4% Cinsault.

Clos de Gilroy 2010

Central Coast Grenache. I’m not sure about this particular wine. It is young and if it is going to develop any austerity and nuance I didn’t get a hint of it from my tasting. Sometimes bottles don’t travel well, and bottle #2 will be allowed to sit well into 2012 to see that happens. I found it to be fruity, light, with soft tannins and pretty basic. I did feel it was tasty enough and at a reasonable price point to cook with, and that’s just what I did.

Red Wine Slow Cooked Pork

Rub for the pork

½ cup brown sugar

1 tsp sweet paprika

1 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 Tbsp salt

½ tsp instant coffee powder

¼ tsp all spice

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp chipotle powder

3 pound pork loin roast

Cooking liquid

1 cup Bonny Doon Clos de Gilroy 2010

1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 Tbsp Reduced Sodium Worcestershire sauce

1 Tbsp honey

Mix all of the dry rub ingredients in a small bowl. Rub the pork loin, including the bottom

and sides of the roast with the prepared dry rub. Allow the meat to sit for at least an hour.

Setup your slow cooker, coat the inside of it with cooking spray and set on high. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and lightly coat with olive oil. Sear the roast on all sides until nicely browned. Remove from heat. Pour all of the cooking liquid ingredients into a small saucepan, and cook over medium heat until just hot.

Place the roast in the slow cooker. Pour the warm cooking liquid over top. Cook on high for 1 hour. Reduce heat and cook on low for 6 hours, or until it reaches the desired consistency.

Remove the pork from the slow cooker, and let rest, covered with tin foil, while you prepare the glaze form the leftover cooking liquid. Pour the liquid from the bottom of the slow cooker into a small pot on the stove, and bring to a boil. Let the liquid simmer and reduce for 10 minutes or so, until it thickens.

The pork came out of the slow cooker almost falling apart and by the time the plates were prepared a fork cut right through it. I plated the pork with sauteed onions, the sauce, mashed parsnip & potato and butter/dill carrots. The bread was a rosemary white bread made using a killer no-knead recipe taken from the book “My Bread, The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method”. The bread really is easy and the smell of warm rosemary while it was cooking was very pleasing!

The pairing with the Le Cigare Volant was spot on. The match for the spices in the rub and those in the wine was the central tie for me. The richness of the sauce over the pork was complimented by the complexity of the wine. The only sad part has been eating the leftovers at my desk at work without the wine!

Cheers!

Jason

Slow Cooker Pork & Ethos Merlot

( Hungry? )

A few years back Margot and I both used the Weight Watchers program to lose weight and get to a manageable food lifestyle. Writing a food and wine blog makes that hard, but we are much more capable of intertwining healthy eating now so we no longer actively count points. During that time Margot picked up the “In Good Time - 123 Slow Cooker Recipes To Come Home To” Weight Watchers recipe book. We’ve used it so many times it has pages falling out of it! The recipes are really that good and when I work from home on Wednesdays I have plenty of time to have something going in the slow cooker.

This week I picked a recipe we hadn’t yet tried for Braised Pork Loin with Port and Prunes which can be found on page 47 of the book. We pick our weekly menus on Sunday to aid in the grocery shopping, but this also gives me time to think about beverage pairings. As I thought about what to drink with the pork I remembered we had a bottle of Ethos Merlot that we brought back from Chateau Ste. Michelle in May. We tasted it during the wonderful private tasting we had and it knocked both of our socks off! This is the best Merlot I have ever had, and one of the best bottles of red wine I have ever had the privilege to taste. We’ll get back to the wine in a minute.

A few weeks back Margot took advantage of a buy-one-get-one deal on pork loin roasts. It ended up being for the big ones so we have adapted this recipe for a roast 1/3 larger than the recipe called for. We also used two homemade wines instead of port. For the sweet component we used a wine we made in 2007 that we called Dark Magic made from grocery store grapes. Early on it was very funky, but it has mellowed now and the residual sugar makes for a great taste. We added some depth with some 2010 Chilean Malbec. This is from an early bottled 3 gallons that ended up being a bonus from the batch. It is young and not refined yet, but it is very drinkable with distinctive flavors and aromas. The color is very dark and I thought the richness would be fantastic in this dish.

Braised Pork Loin with Port and Prunes

1 (4½ lb) boneless pork loin
2 tsp ground black pepper
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp ground mustard
1 ½ tsp dried sage
¾ tsp dried thyme
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 ½ cups sliced onion
2 leeks, sliced thin (white part only)
2 carrots, peeled and sliced thin
½ cup dry red wine
1 cup sweet red wine
1 dry red wine
2/3 cup vegetable broth
20 pitted prunes
2 bay leaves
2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp water

The process is pretty simple. The pepper, salt and spices are used to create a rub for the roast which should be cut in half crosswise. After applying the rub, heat the oil in a large pot. Once the oil is hot, brown the roast pieces on all sides. When browned move the roast to the slow cooker. I usually spray my slow cooker insert with some cooking spray to prevent sticking.

I added some additional oil to the pot used to brown the roast and then added the onion, leek and carrot, sautéing them for about 8 minutes. Add the wine and stock and scrape the bottom of the pot clean. Pour the wine and vegetable mixture over the pork in the slow cooker, add the prunes and bay leaves and cover. I cooked this on high for two hours and then low for another five hours. Make sure to remove the bay leaves before continuing.

( Ready to cook! )

When you are ready to serve it remove the pork to a heat-proof dish and keep warm. Transfer the contents of the slow cooker to a large pot and bring to a boil. Use the water and cornstarch to thicken the sauce. Salt and pepper to taste.

( This is what it looked like after I took it out of the cooker and it had sat in a warm oven for a few minutes. )

This dish was a jackpot. The pork was so tender that removing it from the slow cooker was a challenge. The combination of flavors was wonderful with the prunes and red wine providing a clear foundation of fruit and subtle sweetness. We served it alongside baked acorn squash that had been basted with olive oil and maple syrup. Incredible!

The wine didn’t fail us on our second taste. From the moment we smelled it we recalled our mutual agreement from the tasting. This bottle is from the 2005 vintage and my understanding is that it should be tough to find these days unless you are in Woodinville, WA! It has intense aromas of cherry and plum. You’d have to have the worst cold in the world not to be able catch the aromas. It is mouth-coating and silky, something I could sit and savor for far too long. The fruit flavors are what you notice first and there is slight gaminess to it that went really well with the pork. The wine is very balanced with noticeable tannins, but not in an overpowering way. The wine enhanced the perception of the spices and flavors in the food without losing itself. I don’t think I could easily have picked a better wine to pair with, although I am up for the challenge!

Cheers!

--Jason