Currently cooking from All About Braising by Molly Stevens

Here’s another dish that makes this book worth buying. I’ve heard of dishes that use milk as the cooking liquid, but I’ve never tried them. Now I’m a convert.

You start off by inserting slivers of garlic seasoned with sage and fennel seeds into slits made in a pork loin roast. The meat is then browned on all sides. More garlic is added to the pot before it is deglazed with whole milk, then the whole thing is put into a 275 degree oven for just over an hour. Once the meat is cooked, you set it aside to rest while you finish the sauce. At this point, the milk is a caramel color and looks curdled. You boil the liquid down until all you are left with are the milk curds. At this point, the sauce is tasted for seasoning and finished with a bit of lemon juice.

The sauce tasted fine, but I had a problem with the texture and appearance. It just didn’t look very good, so I followed one of Stevens’ variations and whizzed the sauce in a blender until it was smooth and creamy. I served the pork, sliced and drizzled with the sauce, with some brown rice and homemade rolls. Both Bryan and I couldn’t stop talking about how good this was. The pork was perfectly cooked and juicy. The sauce was creamy and salty (in the very best way). I’m already planning on trying this with pork chops or maybe a pork tenderloin cut into chunks.