April 11, 2016

Rosemary Garlic Citrus Pork Loin

Martie Food and Recipes carrots, celery rack, fresh Rosemary, lemon, olive oil, onions, orange, oven, potatoes, Rosemary garlic citrus pork loin 21 Comments

I love to find a pork loin roast on sale.  It’s like hitting the jackpot!  I like the little tenderloins, too, that usually come in pairs, but the pork loin roast is probably my favorite cut of pork.  The pork loin is lean, tender, and always feeds my family twice! I conjured up this Rosemary garlic citrus pork loin this past week, and we enjoyed it thoroughly for two nights in a row!

Sometimes I’m lazy and I cook my pork loin in the crockpot.  I decided to be too lazy to drag out my crockpot this time, and to procrastinate instead.  I had to then cook my pork loin in the oven, and I had to figure out how to flavor it.  I love to slow cook these with Coach’s homemade barbecue sauce, and since I didn’t think to ask him to make me some, I couldn’t motivate myself to come up with something else.

Then I remembered!  How can I forget?  Madre’s Rosemary bush!  It’s a beaut, I tell ya.

Am I wrong?  Oh man, this thing smells heavenly! There’s nothing like fresh Rosemary! I cut a couple of sprigs and headed back to the house to get started!

I literally just started grabbing stuff.  This was my thought process. Garlic goes with Rosemary.  MMM, an orange!  Orange is so sweet…let me grab a lemon! I wonder what temperature I should cook it at? How much should I get Shuh-Wanda to cut off of my hair next week? Aw, look at Rocky on his back with his legs in the air! Did I pay the pest control bill? Oh, yeah, dinner… I ended up with this pile of deliciousness.

I needed liquids, stat! I dumped all that good stuff above into a glass measuring cup and juiced both the lemon and the orange into the cup, then added some olive oil.

I had already strategically placed some celery stalks in the bottom of a 9″ x 13″ pan, because celery makes a lovely rack to cook your meat on.  I seasoned the roast on both sides with salt and pepper, put it up on my celery rack, surrounded it with my favorite roasting veggies (potatoes, carrots and onions, also seasoned with salt and pepper), and then poured all that heavenly stuff on top. Rosemary Garlic Citrus Pork Loin was born!

It hit me then how good it would have been to have made that Rosemary garlic citrus stuff hours earlier and marinate my roast in it! I tell you what, I ‘m not sure it could have been any better if I had.  This was freakin’ AWESOME! It was tender, juicy, and absolutely full of flavor.

Rosemary Garlic Citrus Pork Loin

We did have enough for two nights, but we had to show some serious restraint to not devour the whole thing in one night.  The potatoes and carrots took on the flavors from the roast, and my kids were stabbing their potatoes and carrots and dipping them in the juices on the platter!  They were also dipping their meat and bread.  They were making noises like mmmm and momfisgood, but not really talking.  

Click here for a printable version of my impromptu recipe.  I can’t promise I did it exactly this way, but I bet it will yield the same delicious results! Just be sure to not undercook it, because that’s a no-no with pork.  {Here’s a little pork cooking guide.} I served my Rosemary Garlic Citrus Pork Loin with green beans, long grain and wild rice, and French bread.  The next night I served it with macaroni and cheese, pinto beans and corn bread.  I think you could serve it with a slice of raw turnip and no one would notice.

Although, some weirdos like raw turnips.

Also, I highly recommend that you grow your own Rosemary.  Madre’s plant is in the ground, right in front of the barn.  As you saw in the above photo, it’s huge.  I’ve pulled sprigs off all winter, so it’s like it’s never out of season!  It’s so delicious on so many things, so it’s just worth having your own fresh Rosemary.  It’s also good for you!  The best reason I can give you, though, is right here.  

If you try this Rosemary Garlic Citrus Pork Loin, please come back and let me know what you think!  This is a recipe that I will return to again and again, because even Tigger, my picky eater, fell in love with it.  As she was watching me write this post, she said, “I miss that meat!”  Out of the mouths of babes…

Happy Monday!

X,O,X,O,   Martie

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