Marinated pork loin

Lime and beer marinated pork loin & spring salad

Pork loin is a wonderful ingredient, bare and ready to be slathered in a spicy, sweet and tangy concoction, like this one, which both adds flavour and makes it more tender. 

The recipe for this marinade was taken from Canadian Living website and as well as provide this winner, it also gave me some information to think about. Whenever I marinade a piece of meat, without blinking I always preserve the marinade to make a sauce, never before giving a moment's thought to any health issues. I would always make sure I boiled it for a few minutes to help destroy any bacteria, but it seems that this may not be enough to render it safe and many trained chefs are taught to never, ever do this, (even basting the meat with this marinade can be dangerous). Opinion seems to be divided, some say boiling for at least 10 minutes will be OK, while others claim that no amount of cooking will completely eradicate all the harmful things picked up from raw meat. The alternative: make twice as much marinade at the beginning and keep half solely to make your sauce.

 

Recipe : Lime and beer marinade for pork

Adapted from Canadian Living website

1/4 cup beer (alcoholic or non - alcoholic)

1/6 cup lime juice (about 2 whole limes)

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tbsp fresh sage, finely minced

1/2 tsp chili powder

1/4 tsp ground cumin

1/8 tsp ground coriander

1/8 tsp salt

a few good twists of black pepper

1 pork loin

Cut the limes in half, squeeze out as much juice as you can into a bowl and then add the halved limes also. Add all other ingredients and mix well. 

Slash a few cuts into the pork, (only cut the surface, not too deep) and place into a zip loc bag.

Pour the marinade including the lime halves into the bag, squeeze out some of the air and seal. Massage the marinade into the pork. Refrigerate for several hours. (Alternatively, place the pork straight into the bowl, turn to coat, cover and refrigerate. 

If you want to make a sauce with the pork, make another bowl of marinade using half the ingredients again and cover and refrigerate separately.

When you are ready to cook the pork, remove from the marinade, wiping any excess off with a paper towel and either grill, (broil), barbecue or roast at 375oF for about 30 minutes until cooked through with either a small amount or no pink in the middle, (depending on taste). Cut into slices and serve.

To make a sauce: Pour the separate marinade into a pan and gently bring to the boil until heated through. Turn up the heat and boil more rapidly to reduce and thicken. (Other options are to add a little cornflour mixed with a tsp of sauce and poured back into the pan or a spoonful of sour cream). Taste the sauce, it may be quite strong, in which case you can add a little water and reduce again until you have a taste and thickness you like.