Grilled Pork Roast with Port/Vidalia/Fig Sauce
Serves 4
Recipe for the sauce:
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 large Vidalia onion, sliced thinly, then quartered
1 tablespoon flour (any type)
1 cup port wine
4 figs, stems removed and halved
- Preheat a non-stick skillet over med-high heat.
- Add the coconut oil. (You can use any type of oil, but caramelized onions made with coconut oil creates a delicious flavor combination.)
- When the oil begins to shimmer, add the onion, and turn heat down to medium. Season the onions with a bit of black pepper.
- Let the onions slowly caramelize. This will take 20-25 minutes. Don’t rush it. Cooking them fast will fry them crispy. The idea here is to make them convert their sugars into caramel and break down all the cell stucture. They will end up incredibly fragrant and soft.
- When the onions are fully caramelized, sprinkle the flour over them and stir to combine.
- Increase the heat to medium-high.
- Slowly pour the port into the onions, whisking constantly.
- When the sauce coats the back of a spoon, lay the figs in the sauce and let them get warm.
- Serve over sliced pork.
Tips for roasting a pork half loin on a grill:
When cooking a pork half loin on the grill, I like to season it with something good, like Penzey’s Bavarian Style seasoning.
I also do not place the roast directly on the grate, but I also do not use a pan. I want the heat to directly roast the meat, without it sticking to the grill. My solution is to take a handful of herbs from my garden (usually a few rosemary branches and make some basil boughs) and place those on the grill, and then the roast on top. The herbs will mostly burn (eventually) but they will infuse the meat with their gentle flavors.
You may be wondering what is sticking out of the top of the roast. That is my secret weapon for grilling food that is fully cooked, but still moist. That is a Taylor Digital Cooking Thermometer/Timer. You set the desired tempurature of doneness (145F for pork roasts), and then you can let it go. It has an alarm that sounds when the temp is reached.
When your roast hits 145F, remove it from the grill, tent it with some aluminum foil and let it rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting it.
That knife you see is a very nice knife, an 8 inch chef’s knife, that I bought at IKEA. You can get a similar knife from Amazon. The patterns in the blade is called Damascus steel, and is made be repeated heating in forge, hammering flat, folding over and then repeating if many times. There are master knifemakers who still make them in that method, each knife taking more than a day to craft. Those knives sell for $200-400 per INCH of blade! I paid less than $50 for mine, and the knife that I show you in the Amazon link is $111.00. A Damascus blade tends to keep it’s edge longer, and I just love mine.
My dream is to own one of those handmade works of kitchen cutlery art. It will happen!
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Note: the links to Amazon are an affiliate links. That means if you click on those and buy one something, I will receive a small commission. It does not change your cost at all, but it will help me continue to provide recipes and advice here and in my podcast Make Your Someday Today.