So the boyfriend has this thing with food with fruits in it. In my opinion, what's better with fruits than pork? I've had quite a few bad experiences with pork chops so I decided that as much as pork chops and applesauce might be the thing that the boyfriend would be like most, I went with a nice pork loin.
I googled some recipes for marinating the pork loin but ultimately settled for a variation of a few dry rubs that I found. I used a dry rub consisting of garlic powder, chilli powder, sea salt, fresh ground black pepper, and brown sugar. It gave the pork loin a nice spicy kick and the brown sugar made a nice crispy coating. Oh but I didn't stop at the dry rub. I also made fruity glaze to go on top of the pork loin which doubles as a glaze and dipping sauce. I reduced some concentrated raspberry juice, added in some apricot jam, some garlic powder to make it a savory glaze and a slight touch of honey to mellow out the tartness of the raspberry juice. And then of course, I must have applesauce. Made some homemade applesauce which the bf thought was store bought. Guess I did my job there.
Now the question came down to, what about the side dish? I left that up to my trusty Fresh & Easy stor3. Found myself some arborio rice. Why of course~! Risotto~!
I've never attempted risotto before. It always seems to me that it's something that's slaved over and has to be done just right, preferrably in a full stocked kitchen at a five star restaurant prepared by a chef that studied under some french chef in Paris for 10 years or something. Well, I've definitely never studied under any french chef in Paris nor do I have a full stocked kitchen (I live at home and shares the kitchen with a 2 yr old niece that likes to play tea with the pot and pans). But there were definitely some slaving away in front of the stove. Apparently you can't take your eyes off the risotto or it burns. And the constant stirring. Seriously, I couldn't even tear myself away for long enough to give my bf the proper greeting when he showed up =P.
Thankfully the risotto didn't burn, the pork loin came out perfectly cooked and the bf now thinks I'm an awesome cook (ok, I lied about the awesome part but at least he thinks i'm a decent cook). Can't wait to finally have my own kitchen where my electric mixer attachments won't mysteriously end up in my niece's playhouse.
