Organic Vanilla Cured Pork Loin With Roasted Turnips In a Maple Vanilla Sauce

Brine:

One 2 to 3 pound boneless organic pork loin
9 cups of purified water
2 whole vanilla beans split lengthwise
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup of kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons cracked black pepper

Cured Pork:

Vanilla cured organic pork loin
4 medium organic turnips peeled and cut into 1/4″ rounds
5 ounces of unsalted organic butter melted
2 oz of olive oil
salt and pepper

Maple Vanilla Sauce:

2 cloves of garlic minced
1 cup of homemade organic chicken stock (or you can buy organic chicken broth)
1/4 cup of organic white wine (use regular wine if you don’t have the organic wine)
1-2 tablespoons of maple syrup to taste
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 tablespoons of cold unsalted organic butter chopped into half inch pieces
salt and pepper (use kosher salt or sea salt)

Make brine one to two days ahead of serving pork:

Add water to heavy sauce pan. Scrape seeds of vanilla bean into water and add vanilla bean to water. Bring water to a simmer. Add sugar, salt and cracked pepper, stir until dissolved. Cool brine in water bath to 45 degrees.

Pour brine into glass storage container (avoid plastic, as toxins can leach from the plastic material into the food). Immerse pork loin in the brine and allow it to cure in the refrigerator for one to two days, turning once a day and stirring twice a day.

Roast Pork and Turnips:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Let meat rest for 15-20 minutes.

Toss the peeled turnips in 3 oz of butter, salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat remaining butter and olive oil in oven proof pan on medium high heat. Sear pork on all sides until brown. Finish pork by roasting it in the oven until meat thermometer reaches 145º, roughly one hour. When done, remove pork from roasting pan, cover and let it rest about 15 minutes.

Roast buttered turnips on sheet pan until fork tender, roughly 20-25 minutes.

While the pork rests, start work on the maple vanilla sauce.

Degrease the roasting pan by skimming the drippings in the pan with a spoon to remove fat. Sauté garlic until fragrant, about 1 minute.

Deglaze roasting pan with wine and reduce by half. Add stock, syrup and vanilla. Reduce sauce to almost a glaze. Remove sauce from heat, stir in chunks of cold butter and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Laura Klein is a trained chef with roots in the organic food movement and brings intelligence, intoxicating energy and... More about Laura Klein, Chef & Wellness Expert

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