Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Citrus Spice Pork with Honey Spice Sweet Potatoes

Sunday night I had a girlfriend over to knit, quilt & watch Downton Abbey while my manservant (um, yeah, Matt) prepared a wonderful feast for our dinner. He served us a pork roast that had been brined in a mixture of orange juice & chiles with a side of sweet & spicy mashed sweet potatoes. It was good so, I decided to keep him on a while longer.
Citrus Spice Pork Roast
It was really amazing how much the flavor from this brine came through in the pork. The chiles give it a smoky, pepper flavor but really no heat. The orange juice adds a wonderful brightness. This might be my favorite of the pork brines Matt has tried so far.

Citrus Spice Pork Brine

1 c orange juice
2 c water
1 heaping T kosher salt
1/2 t ground cumin
1/2 t ground ancho
1/2 t ground chipotle
1/2 t ground cinnamon

Mix everything together in a microwave safe dish. Microwave on high for 2 minutes.

Enough brine for a 3 pound pork roast

We brined our roast for about 6 hours in the fridge in a plastic bag. Then it was roasted for about 1 1/2 hours. Matt says he's looking forward to doing a pork tenderloin with this same brine & then grilling it this summer.

These sweet potatoes were the perfect side dish with the pork. I know it may seem like sweet potatoes are sweet enough but the honey really balances the little bit of heat from the chipotle.

Honey Spice Sweet Potatoes

3 sweet potatoes
1 oz unsalted butter
1 T honey
1/4 t ground chipotle
salt

Bake or microwave the sweet potatoes until soft. Remove the skins. Put the hot potato meat in a bowl with the butter, honey & chipotle & mash. Season to taste with salt.

3 - 4 servings.

If you are not reading this post in a feed reader or at http://agoodappetite.blogspot.com OR at http://agoodappetite.com then the site you are reading is illegally publishing copyrighted material. Contact me at katbaro AT yahoo DOT COM. All recipes, text and photographs in this post are the original creations & property of the author unless otherwise noted. © 2007-2011 Kathy Lewinski

6 comments:

Elle said...

Manservant! Hahaha...ahhhh, I need one of those.

I love the way he cooks for you-this looks awesomely comforting!

RJ Flamingo said...

That brine sounds similar to a marinade I use on chicken - so good and flavorful! And I just loooove what he did with the sweet potatoes! I'm going to try that.

Amy P. said...

Hehe, I love it when my manservant (husband) cooks too - food seems to taste better when someone else makes it!

grace said...

your brine ingredients are terrific--oranges complement pork in the best way, and cinnamon complements everything all the time in any situation. :)

Amy said...

A delicious meal served by a manservant while the gals knit and quilt??!? Sounds like the perfect day to me!

Lori said...

Cracking up with the manservant! He definitely fulfilled his duties. What a great meal! Can't decide which I like better, the brine or the potatoes. Definitely trying out both!

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t = teaspoon
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