Five Spice Pork Loin With Oranges and Prunes

Friends, I am entering new territory here.  I don't think I've ever done this before, but there's a first time for everything, right?  I am going to blog about something that I didn't make.  It was made for me, but it was just so delicious that I cannot keep it to myself.   

On Tuesday night Jordan made me this simple but absolutely scrumptious pork loin, that combines several of my favorite flavors.  First, 5 spice powder is one of those ingredients that I often forget about, which is sad, because it lends a wonderful slightly exotic but not overpowering flavor that I adore.  You can never go wrong with onions, which also bulk up the sauce, and orange juice and prunes lend a sweet fruitiness that I absolutely cannot resist.  (Prune skeptics, just stop.  Prunes aren't just for old people anymore.  Have you not seen Sunsweet's aggressive marketing campaign?  They're delicious, and that's all there is to it,)

Combine spices, rub meat, brown, add liquid, cover, braise.  So easy.  The result is deliciously tender pork, and a sauce that becomes rich and thick with caramelized onions, sweet, sticky prunes and zesty orange flavor.  I couldn't get enough of it.  (I was eating it out of the pan by the end!)   We tweaked this recipe a little, upping each of the sauce ingredients, because in this case, more is more (delicious sauce).  

It's no glamour shot, but check out that sauce!  God, it was good.

Orange Almond EVOO Heaven

  

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, every food blogger/writer/celebrity/enthusiast (and their mothers) were putting out their "Top 10 Cookbooks of the Year."  Over and over these lists mentioned NYTimes columnist Melissa Clark's new book Cook This Now:120 Easy and Delectable Dishes You Can't Wait to Make.  If you're not familiar with Clark, she writes "In the Kitchen With a Good Appetite" (and has another book by the same name), which is, in my opinion, the highlight of the NY Times's Wednesday Dining Section.  After the holidays I finally requested the book from my favorite place, the Cambridge Public Library.  Since picking it up I have to say I'm totally in love with it, if only for the following recipe, an Orange-Almond-Olive Oil Cake that is just out of this world.  I also want to make about 90% of the other recipes, too, but in the last 2 weeks I've made this cake 3 times.  Yes, it's that good.  (And no, I haven't eaten them all myself--I gave 2 away.)  But seriously, this cake: so good!  It has this incredibly light texture, while still being very moist.  Clark calls it "intensely almond-y" but I really pick out the orange flavor--guess they're both there in perfect harmony.  The cake also contains buckwheat flour, which I had never used before, despite owning a bag (that, admittedly, I pilfered from my mother's cupboard).  The nuttiness of the buckwheat flour offers another interesting layer of flavor, so I'd recommend getting a bag, even if it's just for this cake.  You'll probably want to make it so many times that it'll be gone in no time!  However, if you're so desperate the try this before making a trip to the grocery store, I'm sure that replacing it with all-purpose would also produce a very good cake. 

Simple, rustic, but oh-so-tasty!