Pork Roast with Orange Apricot Lemongrass Gastrique

While I was relaxing on the sofa with a cup of tea and a pile of magazines, a recipe for blood orange gastrique jumped out at me from the pages of Bon Appetit. Sometimes, when a recipe gets my attention, I have to make it immediately, if not sooner. I had defrosted a small four-chop pork roast for dinner and had no clear idea of how I would serve it. At the time, it was in the fridge luxuriating in a bath of soy sauce, garlic, mirin, and lemongrass paste. Would not a blood orange gastrique go nicely with an Asian-marinated piece of meat?

We didn't have blood oranges, but we had orange juice, so I followed the recipe except for that substitution. After the sauce had reduced to about half a cup, I added a pinch of powdered ginger, a tablespoon of apricot preserves, and a teaspoon of lemongrass paste.

As for the meat, I decided to follow the cooking instructions for a slow-roasted pork loin in the Joy of Cooking. The recipe states that a 3-lb boneless roast should take about 1 1/2 hours. I figured that my 2-lb bone-in roast would take about as much time. Wrong. After reaching an internal temperature of only 118F at the 90-minute mark, I cranked the oven temperature up to 350F. About 45 minutes later, it was finally done. Crazy!

Along with the gastrique, I served the pork with an arugula, butter lettuce, and pear salad, and some Trader Joe's Thai-style Lime Rice. It all worked quite nicely together.