Butterflied Pork Loin with Bittersweet Cumquat Sauce
When you are a cook, conversations about food stimulate creativity, of that there is no doubt. Sadly I don’t all have a foodie friend who as at my beck and call 24 hours a day, someone I can bounce ideas off. This is where you come in. I “talk” to my worldwide foodie friends in blog land.
Chicago John, from the Bartolini Kitchens posted a recipe for pork topped with plum jam based sauce a few weeks ago. I sat up and took notice because I have a pantry shelf groaning with jars of jam we are slow to consume. Glenda of the Passionfruit Garden then posted her interpretation of John’s idea using Melon and Ginger Jelly. So influenced by both, I made butterflied pork loin with bitter sweet cumquat sauce using some of my aged homemade cumquat marmalade.
I was a little fearful that the sweet tartness of my marmalade would overwhelm the pork, but in fact it was the perfect match. The cumin dusted roasted pumpkin wedges I served as an accompaniment cheered when they met the sauce too.
The concept of this recipe is exciting, the preparation quick and simple. Combining cumquat marmalade with mustard, garlic and stock to sauce a simple piece of grilled or pan fried pork, chicken or duck makes a dish worthy of dinner party status.
Thanks John, thanks Glenda.
4 butterflied pork loin cutlets
1 large clove of garlic
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 spring onions, green tops only
1/2 cup boiling water
1/2 organic vegetable stock cube
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1/2 cup cumquat marmalade
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
Generous grinding of black pepper
Remove the pork from the fridge an hour before you intend to start cooking.
Heat the oven to 180C. I had pumpkin roasting so it was ready to go.
Slice the spring onion greens and finely slice the clove of garlic. Measure out the marmalade. Dissolve the stock cube and mustard in boiling water.
Heat the butter and oil together in a large sauté pan over a low heat. Cook the garlic gently until it’s golden. Set the garlic aside.
Raise the temperature of the pan to medium. Season the pork with the salt and pepper, add the the pan and sauté the pork for 5 minutes each side.
Transfer the pork to a tray and put it into the oven to finish cooking.
Tip most of the fat/oil out of the pan.
Add the spring onions and stir for a few minutes. Return the garlic to the pan with the mustardy stock and deglaze the pan. Add the marmalade, bring the pan to the boil, and simmer for a few minutes until the ingredients are amalgamated and the sauce has thickened a little.
Remove the pork from the oven to allow it to rest while the sauce is simmering.
Taste the sauce, then add more salt and pepper if necessary. Turn off the heat.
Put the pork into the sauce with any juices that have flowed into the pan.
Turn the pork over in the sauce then serve.
About ladyredspecs
28 comments on “Butterflied Pork Loin with Bittersweet Cumquat Sauce”
Leave a comment
Creative Commons Copyright Licence
Please Pass the Recipe by Sandra Gay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
Please Pass the Recipe 
I’ve never tasted cumquat jam but your dish sure looks good. It’s very nicely presented. Thank you for the mention. I’m really glad that my recipe provided you with inspiration. Just this evening, with a pork tenderloin on my counter, I looked at my jars of jam and my harissa that I’d frozen. I went with harissa but, I can assure you, had I read this post yesterday, I would have cooked my pork with one of those jams. Next time, no doubt. 🙂
LikeLike
Thanks John, we loved the flavour of the cumquat with the pork, I intend to sauce duck in a similar way next week. The bittersweet flavour was the perfect foil for rich meat. It’s fantastic to have a new idea we like to make inroads into our marmalade stock
LikeLike
Beautiful presentation – bet it tasted as good.
LikeLike
Thank you, it tasted great as well as looking good. We were very happy
LikeLike
When you are a consumer of recipes, ‘conversations about food’ makes you hungry. Can you age marmalade in the same way that you age wine?
LikeLike
I wondered the same thing about “cellaring” all my jars of marmalade. I don’t think much changes though, sadly
LikeLike
How long can you keep a home made jar of jam or marmalade?
LikeLike
Well I have marmalade which is 4 years old. Providing the jar was sterilized and has maintained it’s vacuum, and the jars have been stored in a dark and fairly cool place it should be OK. Sugar afterall is a preservative. If the jam has shrunk in the jar, the seal is gone, ditto if it’s mouldy, nothing to do then but chuck it.
LikeLike
John’s recipe has been next to the stove since he posted it – now I have your very interesting one too: what a darn pity I did not read this an hour earlier as I have a lovely pork chop in marinade for lunch 😦 ! And do have cumquat marmalade!!! Love the simple cumin pumpkin to go alongside . . . Well, next week!!!
LikeLike
I think John might have started a trend! Love to hear how you interpret this dish
LikeLike
Thanks for posting this sauce recipe. Like you, I have too many preserves to use up, from fruitful past summers. Although I don’t eat meat, this sauce might go well with an earthy lentil thing, like a veg shepherds pie.
LikeLike
Thanks for posting the sauce recipe. Like you, I have too many preserves to use, from fruitful past summers. Although i don’t eat meat, I can use this sauce in many ways and am thinking that it might go well with a lentil shepherd’s pie or burger.
LikeLike
love the sound of the bittersweet cumquat sauce!
LikeLike
Thanks, it was delicious
LikeLike
Yes, great idea, thanks! I love cumquat and really wish they are more widely available.
LikeLike
You are welcome. I have a small cumquat tree in a pot. It’s close to 25 years old, and strong as an ox. I water and feed it but it’s never been repotted, and every year it produces a few kilos of fruit.
LikeLike
When we move somewhere with a backyard or a balcony, I’d like to have a cumquat tree!
LikeLike
I so identify with you. I love bouncing recipe ideas around with other food lovers, and the extension and re-invention of ideas to make new and delicious things. I had a great afternoon with my food obsessed 16 year old son this week. He works part time at a really great restaurant nearby and brings home lots of new techniques and ideas for me to try. We made lamb with beetroot and sweet potato puree and then a smashed pea bruschetta, taking bits and pieces from the restaurant, River cottage recipes and our own inspiration. And I love that you have shelves groaning with jam. A woman after my own heart! margaret
LikeLike
Nice to hear from you Margaret, it’s been a while…I love the ways ideas bounce randomly, intersect, and turn into a whole new thought process when you are talking food. Lucky you, having a son in the industry, it’s a hard path The stimulation is the only thing I miss about work.
LikeLike
okay, that looks and sounds absolutely amazing. Perhaps dinner this weekend.
LikeLike
It’s a great idea, enjoy!
LikeLike
Fantastic Sandra. I have marmalade galore. Another great idea. I think John has started something.
LikeLike
I think he has too, I was very happy! Thanks to you too. Enjoy your break…
LikeLike
We are in Katoomba at the moment. It is a bit chilly but very nice.
LikeLike
yum, this sounds delicious! I had a similar vein of thought using the jam in the pulled pork I did recently. I’ll be doing something the same with the spiced plum sauce that I made from Karen Martini’s book. 🙂
LikeLike
Can’t wait to see what you come up with Leah. It was really delicious concept
LikeLike
Yummy! Citrus and pork is wonderful, and the cumin with the pumpkin sounds like the perfect accompaniment.
LikeLike
Super happy with this dinner…and it was quick and easy. I have more plans for those jars of cumquat marmalade.
LikeLike