The three ingredients for this month’s Royal Food Joust are apple, cayenne pepper and maple syrup, picked by Natasha @5 Star Foodie. When I saw this I have everything in the kitchen, Dutch baking apples from our neighbours, maple syrup from Canada and cayenne pepper sitting on the shelf. It immediately inspired me to make a pot roast pork. I like the idea of using roast apples instead of apple sauce. The cayenne pepper did not make the pork too spicy at all because of the maple syrup; the fragrance of the herbs infused into the pork without the need of marinating the pork loin and the masala wine in the gravy sauce made a nice finishing touch for this dish.

Royal Food Joust is a monthly food event initiated by Jenn @The Leftover Queen, she has a great Foodie Blogroll, a food blogger community forum for meeting other fellow food bloggers. Feel free to join us.

Ingredients:

• 1 small loin of pork joint
• 4 medium sized potatoes peeled and quartered
• coarse sea salt
• 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 apples suitable for baking (e.g. Goud Rennet, Dutch apples normally used for Dutch apple pies), halved
• 6-8 garlic cloves
• pinches of cayenne pepper
• 2 medium carrots, cut into pieces
• maple syrup
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 3 cloves
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 tbsp masala wine

Directions:

1. Parboil the potatoes in salted water for 10 minutes. Drain well and set aside.
2. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
3. Score the pork loin, cutting in close parallel lines and leaving any string intact.
4. Rub the cayenne pepper all over the pork, working it into the cracks. Push the herb sprigs into the cracks.
5. Pour generously some olive oil into a Dutch oven or an ovenproof pan with lid and heat it up.
6. Gently place the pork into the pan and sear on all sides.
7. Roast in the oven for 10 minutes and then add the potatoes and carrots and turn the potatoes so other sides are also cooked in the oil and roast for another 10 minutes.
8. Turn the heat down to 190ºC.
9. Place the apples cut-side down into the Dutch oven, sprinkle the cumins and cloves and add the garlic cloves and bay leaves.
10. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes and then take out the apples and garlic from the oven and
11. Brush the maple syrup around the pork and roast for another 40 minutes to an hour until the pork is cooked.
12. Test if the pork is cooked by inserting a wooden stick and no juice coming out.
13. Transfer the pork onto a plate,wrap with aluminium foil to keep warm.
14. Now return the dutch oven back to the oven and increase to 220ºC , place on the upper rack and roast until golden-brown. When cooked, place the potatoes onto a plate, wrap and keep warm.
15. Prepare the sauce by adding a little water to the dutch oven and bring to boil on a stove. Using a wooden spoon, scrape the sides and bottom of the dutch oven to get out all the good bits into the sauce and lastly add the masala wine.
16. Remove the rosemary and thyme before carving the pork loin, scoop the apple out from the skin and serve accordingly with the sauce on side.

Enjoy!