Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Pork Loin with Cabbage and Apple Slaw

I've never cooked pork before on the grill, so I decided to give it a whirl. A really delicious dish and definitely going to work on it some more.

Some quick tips:
1) Smoke pouch - created using double aluminum foil (poked with a fork to release the smoke) with apple wood chips soaked in water for 30 minutes. Cook over high heat until you see plumes of smoke coming out of the pouch. Move the pouch to a section with low heat. Make sure to check up on it to make sure the smoke doesn't die out.
2) Pork - the pork came out surprisingly pretty juicy without brining it. The key was using a big pork loin (3 pounds). Cooked over medium heat until nicely seared on all sides. Then move the pork loin over to an area of the grill with no heat and close the grill so it works like an oven. Cook until juicy - maybe 20 minutes. I don't mind if it's slightly pink in the center as long as you're using a good piece of meat. I had some decent fat in the loin which made the thing taste like delicious bacon.
3) Slaw - After hitting up the delicious Prime Meats and enjoying their off the charts potato salad, I realized that a bright side dish worked perfectly with a rich piece of meat. Instead of the heavy mayo based slaw I used apple cider vinegar, honey, and a vinegar based bbq sauce. It was so bright and acidic and perfect with the tender pork loin. The slaw was filled with apple, red cabbage, carrots, and onion. Figured, this would be some apple on apple crime (apple cider vinegar, sliced apple, and apple wood smoke). It was a friggin awesome combo - crunch and massive brightness with the juicy rich meat.

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