Perfect Pairing for your Bunch: Apple and Rosemary Pork Roulade

Recently, on a gorgeous fall day, my family and I took a trip to a local orchard to pick apples. We had so much fun taking a hayride to the back of the property, then hopping off at the destination to start scouting out the apple variety that we wanted to pick.

Well, we got a little caught up in the fun and before we knew it, we had picked and bagged more apples than we could possibly eat.

Now with a stocked pantry overflowing with apples, I thought I’d try to use some of the apples in our meals. The October issue of Cooking Light featured a pork tenderloin recipe with apples and rosemary. Pork and apples are such a perfect fall classic pairing…about as classic as The Brady Bunch.

In fact, every time I see pork and apple paired in a recipe or on a menu, I am reminded of the Brady Bunch episode of Peter Brady doing his best Humphrey Bogart impression saying, “Pork chawpsh and appleshash, isn’t that shwell”.

This Apple and Rosemary Pork Roulade is very easy to make and makes a beautiful presentation on a plate- perfect if you are serving guests or just your own “Bunch”.

Apple and Rosemary Pork Roulade (adapted from Cooking Light, Oct. 2012)

Ingredients

• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 3 tart apples, chopped (Thierbach Orchards, Marthasville, MO)
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp. fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 (about 1 pound) pork tenderloin (Todd Geisert Farms, Washington, MO)
• 1/2 tsp. pepper
• 1/3 cup chicken stock
• 3 Tbsp. apple cider (Thierbach Orchards, Marthasville, MO)
• 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Heat oil in skillet; add apples, onion and garlic, saute 5 minutes. Add vinegar and rosemary, cook 1 min. more. Sprinkle in pepper.
3. Slice pork lengthwise but not through, then cut each half lenghtwise but not through. Place plastic wrap over pork and pound meat with a mallet until an even thickness.
4. Spread apple mixture on pork and roll up meat.
5. Place meat in an oven-proof pan and cook in heated oven for 15 minutes; remove from oven, let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
6. In skillet, heat stock, cider, mustard to boil, cook 2 minutes, serve over pork.

until next time…