Strawberry Stuffed Pork Loin with Spicy Strawberry Sauce

One of my favorite dishes that I don’t do often enough. This dish is though something that I tend to do for special occasions when I want to wow, or woo, someone with something different and tasty. It’s a fairly simple dish that looks complex, though it does take a little bit of time. I feel I have done a better job on this dish in the past than these pictures represent here, but this recipe should lead you towards that end. One thing I experimented with on this recipe is I did the pork loin with the rib on… I can’t recommend this as the rib made the stuffing a good bit harder and the cutting at the end also more difficult in how I prepared it. Regardless of that it still tasted good. Onto the recipe!

I served this recipe with a mushroom Risotto and some simple Steamed Broccoli that I’ll talk about in another post.

---

What you’ll need…

For the pork and stuffing…

3 lbs pork loin (Center cut works best even though I tend to prefer rib end for flavor and tenderness. You want a good round cut of loin that is fairly even thickness.)
½ pint of strawberries (In season is best! I made this particular batch in February and it didn’t shine nearly as well as when I’ve had it done in better season.)
1 ½ cups stuffing mix for pork (Or for chicken, or simply chop up some old bread and toast lightly in a 300 degree oven until the bread pieces are dried out and crispy. I totally cheated and used Stove-top here, great convenience item.)
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 cup chicken broth, heated till it’s hot but not boiling.
Optional - 1 Tsp Strawberry Extract (This will help the strawberry flavor to shine more, as strawberries can be fairly light in flavor.)

Trim strawberries and add into a food processor. Add in garlic and stuffing mix. Lightly pulse to combine then add in chicken broth a half cup at a time, pulsing a little to mix until the stuffing is a chunky, slightly soft mixture. You may not need to use all the chicken broth as the strawberries have a lot of moisture.

For the pork. There are two ways that I have to cut a pork loin for this recipe and both seem to work well for me. The first method I like to call “unrolling” the pork. I start by taking a long, sharp, chefs knife and do an angeled slice along the top towards an edge and, keeping he knife in the meat, slowly turn the meat. Imagine you are peeling an apple or “unrolling” a roll of paper towels with the pork. Working your knife inward slowly so eventually you are left with a long piece of pork that is fairly thin.

The other method is sort of like butterflying, multiple times. Butterflying a piece of meat is cutting it most of the way through so it can open up, like a butterfly’s wings. In this case I cut the pork loin close to in half, but not all the way through, so it can be opened up. I then make horizontal cuts to each side in the middle of each “half”, starting from the center, allowing each half to fold open like a butterfly as well. You should end up basically with what appears to be an unrolled pieces of pork loin. With that, you are ready to start stuffing.

Stuffing is simple, apply stuffing along the pork, leaving an inch open on the starting “long” end of one side and about two on the finishing end. Once the stuffing is layed out slowly roll up the pork loin, pressing with your fingers to seal and remove excess air in the pork as you go. You may squeeze a little stuffing out of the sides, but that’s okay. Once you get to the end wrap the other loose end up to the pork and place, seam side down in a baking dish.

For added security you can use toothpicks or small metal skewers to hold the roast together. The “best” thing would be some butcher’s twine. Though I’ve found that if I have the roast squarely on the seam in the pan it’ll often keep itself sealed.

Roast the pork in a 325 degree oven until the internal temperature reaches around 160 degrees (It’ll carry over the last 5 degrees to 165 easily) and allow to rest for at least fifteen minutes before slicing. You should have a nice spiral of stuffing showing on the pork slices. (You can opt to go to a slightly lower temperature, I admit I often do my pork to around 150 or so… which is “technically” under safe temperature conditions. But pork as cleaned itself up a lot and a lot of the big issues that people used to overcook pork for no longer exist actively in pork. It’s a lot cleaner, safer meat nowadays. You’ll find it’s a lot more tender at a slightly lower temperature.)

---

The Strawberry sauce

What you’ll need

½ pint of strawberries
½ cup strawberry preserves (No sugar added if you don’t want the sauce super sweet)
1 Tsp red pepper flakes
¼ cup white wine vinegar
½ cup sweet white or rose wine (Or even better, strawberry wine if you can find it)
¼ cup chicken broth
1 tsp strawberry extract
1 Jalapeno, minced finely. (If you prefer it less hot, remove the seeds and veins in the pepper before mincing to reduce the heat.)
Optional - Red food coloring to redden

Trim strawberries and chop coarsely. Heat a small saucepan on medium-high heat for several minutes. Add in strawberries, chicken broth, vinegar, wine, jalapenos and pepper flakes. Once you have a simmer, stir, cover, and reduce heat to medium low. Cook for about twenty to thirty minutes, stirring occasionally, until strawberries are completely broken apart and almost appear “dissolved” or broken to very small amounts. Remove the lid, turn the heat to medium, and allow the mixture to cook down about half of the liquid, or until it becomes a consistency that can coat the back of a spoon (Nappe). Add in the strawberry extract and optional dye (The sauce won’t be a “bright” strawberry red without dye.) and serve over slices of the pork.

Enjoy!

---

I am, personally, a little unhappy with my writing on this recipe. I feel it's a little to awkward at points (especially the whole how to slice open the pork part.) so if anyone has any pointers on how to improve or better word some parts I'd love the help. :)