Roast Pork with Orange Sauce and Smashed Potatoes

I intended to make roast pork with a cranberry sauce but found I didn't have any cranberries. So I made up an orange sauce instead. Pork goes really well with fruit and this sauce has a bright orange flavour. The smashed potatoes are one of my favourite side dishes. These, paired with a light mixed green salad, made a great weeknight supper. Here we go!

What you'll need:

For the Pork and sauce:

• 1 Boneless pork roast (or a pork tenderloin, whichever you prefer)
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 cup chicken stock
• The juice of 2 large oranges (or about 1 cup of orange juice) plus a few small pieces of the rind
• 1/2 teaspoon dried ginger powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon of honey
• salt and pepper to taste

For the smashed potatoes:

• 1/2-1 lb of small new potatoes (the amount depends on the number of people you are feeding)
• Sea salt in rock form (big chunks of salt)
• Pepper
• Olive Oil

To make the pork:

1. Place 2-3 tablespoons of oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Get the pan nice and hot
2. Season the pork with salt and pepper and sear it in the hot frying pan. Don't put the pork in a cold pan and wait for the pan to heat up. The pork won't get a nice brown crust this way.The picture to the right shows the seared pork.
3. Once the pork has been seared on all sides, place it in a roasting pan in an oven heated to about 375* F
4. A note: When cooking meats I always use a digital meat thermometer like this one:

It has settings for each kind of meat (beef, chicken, pork, veal) and you can just put the probe in the meat and leave it in throughout cooking. The thermometer will alarm when the selected temperature is reached. I usually take the probe out and move it to another section of the meat to ensure it is done throughout. It's great because you never have to cut into the meat to see if it is done. They cost about $10-$20 at the grocery store and everyone should have one!

5. While the meat is roasting, the sauce is started in the same frying pan used to sear the pork. You'll notice there is a brown coating in the pan now. Throw in the diced onion and it will pick up all of that brown "stuff." It will add flavour to the sauce. Season the onions with salt and pepper and cook them over medium heat until they are soft and brown. This will take about 20 min.

 

6. Once the onions are cooked 1 cup of chicken stock, the juice from 2 oranges (about 1 cup of liquid) and the cayenne pepper, ginger and honey. Slice off 2 small pieces of orange rind and put them in the sauce too. Make sure you don't get too much of the white pith when you are slicing the rind as that will leave the sauce very bitter.  

Leave the sauce over medium heat and let it reduce. The onions will continue to cook down and the liquid will get quite thick. I left it for about half an hour, stirring every once in a while and this is the finished product: (note: make sure you remove the orange rinds before serving!)

7. Once the pork is done (about 40 mins to 1 hour depending on it's size) remove it from the pan to a cutting board and let it rest for 10 minutes. This ensures that all the juices stay in the meat.

For the smashed potatoes:

1. Wash the potatoes and place them in a large saucepan filled with water. Boil the potatoes until fully cooked (about 30 minutes depending on the amount of potatoes). You should be able to easily poke through them with a fork when they are done.
2. Drain the potatoes and allow them to cool enough so you can handle them.
3. Once cooled, place them on a cookie sheet and, using the palm of your hand, push down on them until they are "smashed" flat on the sheet. Repeat this with all of the potatoes, making sure they are in a single layer on the cookie sheet.
4. Once they have all been smashed, drizzle olive oil over all of them. Sprinkle some of the sea salt and pepper over each potato. At this point you could also put herbs on them, like rosemary, basil, thyme etc. These don't work with this dish but they would work with others.
5. Place under the broiler of your oven. I used my toaster oven because the pork was in my big oven. If you don't have a toaster oven, you could make your potatoes first in the big oven and just reheat them while your pork is resting.
6. Leave the potatoes in the oven until they get brown and crisp, about 20 minutes.

Slice the pork thinly and fan out on a plate. Top with lots of the orange and onion sauce. Put some smashed potatoes beside this along with some mixed greens. I mixed up some lime juice, honey, salt and oil and used that as a dressing for the greens. This was an easy, tasty, citrus-ey supper. Enjoy!