Rest assured that despite the hard work, rubble and paint that is our life right now, we never go hungry! In fact, we even manage to do a little small scale entertaining and this dish was one I made when Best Pal Ria and her brother-in-law came to visit and see what we had been up to.
I was inspired to cook this dish after having seen a beautiful recipe from ChgoJohn, take a look at this beautiful Roast Loin of Pork with Fig Preserves.
It was a great dish as it can be prepared ahead and served hot or cold, leaving you time to catch up with your guests.
Ingredients
- A loin of pork (or a boned shoulder) mine weighed about 1.75kg 8 (which serves 6-8 people)
- 10 finely chopped dried apricots soaked overnight in orange juice
- 1 tablespoon of harissa paste
- 2-3 tablespoons of pine nuts dried fried until toasted (or you can do this in the oven)
- Salt and pepper
- A glass of white wine (or chicken stock)
- Olive oil
Use a long sharp knife to cut a slit through the middle of the pork loin (think of a hollow tube) so that you can then fill this with “stuffing”. Mix together the apricots and the juices, the pine nuts, the harissa and about 2 teaspoons of olive oil. Season the mixture and use it to fill the pork loin.
Season the outside of the loin and rub a couple of teaspoons of oil into it. Place the meat into a deep dish, cover with a lid or tightly with foil and cook at a medium low heat for about 3-4 hours. Remove the meat from the juices (which you will save) and chill the meat. Don´t skip this step, it makes serving so much easier!
The next day, thinly slice the meat into rounds. Warm the sauce and reduce a little. If you want to serve the meat cold, serve the sauce separately. If you want to serve it warm, pour about a third of the sauce over the meat, cover with foil and put into a medium oven for about 20 minutes and serve the rest of the sauce on the side.
I served mine with cous cous with mint, lemon zest, pomegranate and pine nuts but we ate if before we remembered to take a photo!
Chica Andaluza 
The thought of entertaining with the undertaking of doing a renovation makes me a wee bit stressed – you are awesome! Fabulous pork and your cous cous sounds heavenly too!
Have a beautiful weekend.
🙂 Mandy xo
I think it´s my way of de-stressing – and the socializing helps too! Shame we scoffed the cous cous without taking a snap, it was very pretty 🙂
I do think with a big project like this you are right to take a breather and do something normal. Bravo!
Sometimes you just have to!
Love this recipe. Looked at the Harissa paste and will attempt to make someting similar. that’s the only thing I don’t like about living in semi rural Portual is the difficulty getting odd ingredients 🙂
I agree, I only had this as I´m in the UK but I think you can make a fairly good substitute using red peppers and chilli.
What a perfect meal!
Thanks Tandy – it was fun to make and a pleasure to share with Pals!
Otro exito , me parece……..ya te lo voy a copiar, muchísimas gracias !
Que lo disfrutes!
Love the look and sound of that. Are you knee deep in snow?
We´re lucky here – it´s only settling on bushes and plants and some of the side roads, so we´re just enjoy the beauty of it all for the moment without too much discomfort! How about you?
That looks amazing… and while doing house jobs too! After a day of painting, scraping, cementing etc. I can’t even find the energy for a boiled egg! 🙂
I feel like most days to be honest, but this was my “day off”!
No doubt you scoffed the cous cous quickly because it was extremely good – it’s amazing that the pork lasted long enough for a picture 😉
I think you´re right. And we only managed to get a snap of the pork because I took it when I had cut it up cold and before I popped it in the oven with the sauce!
You are so smart. And now I am starving.
🙂
Good to see it’s not all work and no play for you two.Having friends for dinner offers a nice break from the work stuff. I’m glad that you liked the recipe enough to not only try it but to make it your own. Using apricots is a great idea, Tanya. I need to preserve apricots this season and give this a whirl.
Thanks for the kindly shout-out.
You really did inspire me with your recipe John. I usually just cut the meat into thin fillets and do it on the plancha, so this was a lovely change. And yes, it was good to take some time out to cook for and eat with friends 🙂
I can vouch for this one – it was simply delicious!
Hee hee, glad you liked it…shame we didn´t remember to take a shot of the cous cous before we demolished it!
One of my favorite meals! This looks divine Chica!
Thanks Karista, we´ll be making this again!
Certainly doesn’t look like you’re in the middle of rubble and paint! This pork loin looks absolutely delicious and juicy!! I must experiment cooking with the flavors of harissa paste, got a feeling i’ll really like it:)
I think you can get all sorts of Harissa and the spice element varies – I expect you´d make a fantastic home made version! The kitchen was a priority to be rubble free – luckily we agreed on the importance of quickly sorting out a working kitchen 🙂
You must be a very well organised girl to be turning out boned rolled loins of pork with more than a rudimentary stuffing whilst up to your armpits in deconstruction and reconstruction! When we renovated, it was enough for us to eat pot noodles at the end of the day ;). I had the equivalent of punk rock hair thanks to Steve picking out the colours of our paint while I was away on the mainland laughing uproarously at your very own answer to hobbitdom…Bill Bailey. Not only did Steve buy ALL the paint…he chose the colours, because we couldn’t agree on them while I was there (the cheeky bugger!)…we ended up with a burnt orange kitchen and loungeroom with turquoise cupboards…not a bad combination as it turns out…Med blue (read bright BRIGHT) blue hallway a sage green utility room (not so bad…5 points for that one Steve) and a black and red with white tiles bathroom…interesting and most definately not what I would have picked! 😉 My hair was Med blue and red when I walked the dog and I scared people who were walking past ;). Are we going to see you guys on “Restoration Home” any day soon? And if not, why not? You guys could make some money out of your renos and then you could buy another one! 😉
Oh boy, I’ve been dreaming of John’s pork loin roast and now yours will join the dream. Apricot or Fig? Decisions, decisions! I bow to your ability to entertain while renovating. I don’t think…no, I’m absolutely sure…I wouldn’t be able to do it!
I think this might be meant for Chica 😉
Maybe you could do a new version with both fig and apricot..I bet it would be amazing if you tackled it!
Oops! Sorry about my ill-placed comment! That’s what I get for multi-tasking. 🙂
Well, this meal was made quite near the end of the really horrible work! And I´m with you on the paint – I am constantly covered in the stuff. Luckily (if you can see it like that) everything is white to keep it neutral for tenants, so I just look like I am prematurely ageing with cracked white skin and white hair 😦 I don´t think I´d be allowed on tv – they would have to put too many “bleeps” in while we´re working 😉
LOL! You could be the Charlie Alsop of renovating 😉 I have heard of bleaching your skin but I think you might be taking it to extremes there girl with that white paint! I try to avoid painting like the plague but I always end up doing the ceiling and have a face covered in spots ;). Still rooting for that television show 😉
😉
Oh yum. 🙂 This looks really good. And very ambitious if you are deep into renovations. That’s usually when I rely on takeaway.
Believe me, we´ve had our share of take aways too!
Takeaways are awesome when you are just dead at the end of the day from all the work. And the list never ends!
Tell me about it … 😉
Absolutely love the recipe: that stuffing tastes so moreish on my palate now whilst reading! Apricot, orange and harissa: that will make the pork sing 🙂 ! [Alright, may take a shortcut with bought harissa: do have a good supplier!]
I bought my harissa too – sometimes life is just too short! But yes, the flavours were beautiful together 🙂
¡Qué rico Tanya! Me pido una ración doble 😉
Una ración doble en seguida Giovanna!
Oh…harrissa and apricots sounds so good as a stuffing for the pork loin.
They were good flavours to put together – slightly north African!
It isn’t very often that I comment on full-on meat dishes…this recipe of yours (by way of John, and adapted by your own genius) warrants words, even from the likes of me. Growing up, pork (and later pork loin roast) was my very favorite meat of choice. It’s been many years since I’ve had it, but the taste memory of that one doesn’t leave. And apricots (I love!) and Harissa ! If I were going to go back and eat meat Tanya, this could very well be the dish I’d want!
I never used to be much of a pork fan but British pork is very good now from the right suppliers and of course in Spain I am in “pork ville” so it´s very there too!
Harissa – I learn something new everyday. And pork and apricot; one of my favourite combinations. Doubt that I would be cooking after a day of renovations though. Well done, Tanya
Harissa is a beautiful, gentle flavoured (although it can be very hot too) spice paste which works well dolloped into lots of things. Luckily this was a prepare ahead dish and when the pals came round we took a day off from our labours!
Wow – that sounds amazing!
You’re just going to have to make that couscous again….you know, for the photos 😉
You´re right, the cous cous definitely warrants making again!
Chica, Yum! I also appreciate those meals that leave you time for the best part of having friends over, the extra conversation. Good for you guys, you’re rockstars doing all that work and having time to make scrumtious meals too!
Thanks Carla – much as I enjoy spending a day in the kitchen, sometimes it´s just not possible and meals like this ive a perfect balance of cooking/enjoying time with friends!
What a great way to serve a pork loin. It comes out beautifully and I’m sure it taste wonderful too.
Thanks Greg – it was a good one to prepare ahead and then enjoy with pals.
This sounds delicious, just another very good recipe!
Thanks so much Katya!
Love the incorporation of harissa paste in this dish. I need the heat!
I´m having a bit of a love affair with harissa right now!
Managing to entertain with all the renovation you have to do is heroic in my book!
We are doing minor work on three rooms in the house and all the meals I make require 30 minutes or less and I can hardly manage to make them!
Well, this was close to the end point on the first house, so things were fairly dust free and much less chaotic at that point! Hope your work goes well, it must be stressful with little ones in the house too 😦
Yum! let me know the next time you are entertaining so I can crash the party.
Good heavens – I’d have been happy with just (just? wow!) the couscous! Mmmm this looks divine. You know, I have heard of people who don’t like meat and sweet together… not me! I say bring it on… mmmmmmm!!
I know what you mean about meat and sweet – but some just seem to be made for each other!
I’m glad to hear you’re eating well, but I wouldn’t expect anything less from you! Too funny, I was looking at one of these in the shop yesterday and thought there must be something that could be done with apricots or other dried fruits.. and like magic here you are with the recipe for me! Thank you:) xo
We must have been on the same wavelength!
No more pork loin for us (it’s so expensive here in the UK, and not as good a quality as what we’re used to Spain!!), so it’s beef for now, when we can. But this looks soooo yummy. My suegra makes a similar dish, and I go ga-ga for it. I LOVE meat cooked with fruits. (Making a roast apple chicken this week!)
I agree, we’ve had some good locally reared pork but it’s expensive here. We’re just enjoy the local seafood and beef instead 🙂 Hope the roast apple chicken turned out well…
Speaking of local seafood, dear God, we just had fresh oysters here in Belfast today. SO. GOOD. !!!!
I thought you were in London? Am confused, is D Man working in Belfast now?!
Yes, we’re living in Belfast! Crazy, huh? We moved at the end of December.
Congratulations – do hope all is well and that you’re happy 🙂