Recipe: Balsamic-Baked Onions and Potatoes with Roast Pork

I made this ages ago, and kept intended to post it but you know . . . real life yakkity-smakkity. Anyway, here it is. The recipe is from Jamie at Home, the pictures are taken by my mama.

ingredients*:
 
3 1/2 lbs. medium-sized waxy potatoes, peeled and quartered lengthwise
olive oil
7 ounces of butter, cubed
1 bunch fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons finely ground fennel seeds
1 (3 1/2 lb.) boneless rolled pork loin, skin off, fat scored in a cross pattern
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
5 medium red onions, peeled and quartered
2 stalks of celery, trimmed and chopped
4 bay leaves






1) Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees, Fahrenheit. Put the potatoes in a pot of boiling, salted water and cook around 8 minutes, then drain and return to the pan. Jamie says to "chuff them up a bit" by shaking the pan. I'm not sure what that accomplishes, but I did it anyway.

Pork, rubbed, in the pan to roast deliciously.

2) Prepare the meat: scatter a handful of the chopped rosemary on your cutting board. Sprinkle some salt and pepper, and some of the ground fennel seeds on the board as well. Roll the pork across the board, pressing the rub into the meat. Get a large roasting pan your pork will fit snugly into, and put it on your oven burner. Pour in a little olive oil and put the pork loin into the pan, fat side down. When the fat is lightly browned (probably a couple of minutes) turn it over and add the smashed garlic cloves (the first garlic you hit in my ingredient list), onion, celery, and bay leaves into the pan. Place on the bottom shelf of your pre-heated oven for 1 hour, basting halfway through (I don't think I had enough fat, because there was nothing to bast it with . . . it turned out just fine!)

3) Get another roasting pan, into which you can fit the potatoes in 1 layer, and heat it on the stove. When hot, pour a glug of olive oil into it and add the butter, rosemary and garlic. Add the potatoes and toss them in all the flavors. Add the onions and all the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes on the burner to reduce the balsamic vinegar a little. Place the pan on the top shelf and cook for around 50 minutes, until the potatoes and onions are dark, sticky and crispy - removing the pan to toss the onions and potatoes halfway through.

After 1 hour, the meat should be cooked. Prick it with a sharp knife - if the juices run clear, it's done; if not, pop it back in the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes, keeping the potatoes warm. Remove it from the oven and let it rest on a plate for 10 minutes. Pour away most of the fat from the pan and mash up the garlic and onion. Place the pan over the burner and add the white wine. Simmer until the liquid has reduced by half, scraping all the meaty, marmitey goodness off the bottom to make a tasty little sauce, and season if necessary. Pass through a sieve into a serving pitcher. Then slice the pork and serve it with your incredible baked onions and potatoes, drizzled with the pan juices. This meal goes great with some nice greens or an arugula salad.

**overall, this was super tasty, and I really enjoyed it. My parents said that they would tone down the balsamic a bit though. I thought it was delicious!

*I pretty much halved this recipe, because my family doesn't need that much food. However, I wanted to give the correct amounts so that those people with larger families/entertaining for company know that this is a larger dish.