Alice’s Roast Pork Loin with Milk Gravy

Serves six.

Total time: Approximately three hours.

30 minutes (prep); two hours (cook); 30 minutes carving and gravy preparation.

INGREDIENTS:

· 1/12 pounds (675 g) boned pork loin

· 1 small yellow onion, diced

· 2 cloves of garlic, slivered and the pieces rolled in salt and pepper

· Steak salt OR sea salt and white pepper — to taste

· 2 tablespoons olive oil

· 1 quart whole milk or half-n-half, heated to boiling

· 1 cup dry (good quality) white wine — to deglaze the pan

· ¼ cup flour — to thicken the gravy

PREPARATION:

Trim the meat of almost all visible fat… leaving just a trace on the top to help keep the meat tender as it cooks.
Cut several slits across the grain into the pork, and slip slivers of garlic and onion into each slit.
Dust the meat with steak seasoning or salt and pepper.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and brown the meat on all sides.
Transfer the meat and olive oil to a covered roasting pan.
In a small pot, scald the milk.
Pour the hot milk over the roast. (Goal: to have the milk, whose lactic acid is a natural tenderizer, to cover the roast half-way.)
Place the covered pan in a slow oven (325 degrees Fahrenheit), and cook the roast until it is done and very tender (1 ½ to 2 hours).
During the cooking process, pull the pan out of the oven every 30-45 minutes, and turn the roast. Scrape the bottom of the pan to keep anything from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
When the roast is cooked, the meat will be very tender and easy to slice.
Take the roast out of the pan, and place it in a deep dish for slicing and serving. (Avoid using a cutting board because much of the natural broth/juices are lost — due to run off — during the carving.)
Let the meat rest for 10-15 minutes, then slice it.
Prepare the pan gravy.
By the time the pork is done some of the milk may have evaporated; however, the natural juices from the pork will also now be in the pan, so there should be a lot of liquid in addition to the aromatics (onion, garlic, spices).
Place the roasting pan — and all of its contents — over a low heat on one of your oven burners.
Deglaze the pan with the wine, and scrape together (mix) the milk, pork broth, wine and other pan remnants.
After the liquid is fully mixed and begins to reduce, add some flour to thicken the gravy.
Pour the gravy over the meat and serve with mashed potatoes and/or root vegetables.