I had planned to make this dish over the weekend, but Saturday was consumed by errands, and dinner became an impromptu pizza night. I pushed it to Sunday, but once again, life happened, and the ingredients went back into the refrigerator. Finally, I promised myself Monday's dinner would feature this recipe no matter what.

I worried it wouldn't work as a quick weeknight meal, but surprisingly, I had it on the table in under an hour. I took significant liberties with the original recipe, particularly removing ingredients I dislike—prunes, I'm looking at you! While I'm not a fan of cooked fruit in desserts, I'm more open to them in savory dishes. I substituted apples for the prunes and enhanced the stuffing with leeks and green onions.

I also replaced molasses with brown sugar. Upon inspecting my liquor cabinet, I discovered I lacked Madeira wine, so I used Calvados (apple brandy) instead. After tasting the glaze, I found it needed acidity to balance the sweetness, so I added sour orange juice from my collection of marinades.

All these improvised changes worked beautifully. Another significant adaptation was using thick-cut individual pork loin chops instead of a whole pork loin, which was prohibitively expensive. The chops still rolled perfectly around the stuffing.

FRUIT STUFFED PORK LOIN

Inspired by “The Silver Palate Cookbook” by Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso

Makes 4 portions

Ingredients

4 boneless pork loin chops – think cut, so you can butterfly
1 tablespoon of olive oil
2-3 tablespoons of butter
1 cup of chopped leek
¼ cup of chopped green onion
1 apple, cored and cut into small pieces
5-6 dried apricots, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 tablespoon fresh thyme
1 cup Calvados Apple brandy
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon of sour orange sauce

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Butterfly the pork loin chops, and then flatten them by using a kitchen mallet to get them even thickness, season them with salt and pepper and put aside while you make the stuffing.

In a saucepan, on medium high heat, warm the olive oil and butter together, add the leek, green onion (season with a bit of salt), then when they are translucent, add the apple and apricots and cook and toss around until al dente, about 2-3 minutes of cooking (make sure the apple is not super soft and they still have a bit of a bite to them). Add some of the fresh thyme, season with salt and pepper, toss around a bit, remove from the heat, and let it cool for a bit.

Spread the stuffing in a thin, even layer over the seasoned side of each of the pork chops and roll up tightly. Bind crosswise at 1-inch intervals with butcher’s twine. Season the surface with salt and pepper. Tip! I had about ¼ cup of leftover stuffing that I used to cover the bottom of the baking dish.

Stir the calvados brandy, brown sugar, and sour orange together in a small bowl and set aside.

Using the same saucepan that you cooked the stuffing with, you are now going to sear the stuffed chops. Again melt some butter and olive oil and then when it’s hot, place the chops and let it sear all around. Make sure each has nice color all around.

Set the seared chops in a shallow baking pan. Sprinkle with the thyme, and pour the calvados/sugar/orange glaze. Set the pan on the middle rack of the oven and bake basting frequently, it should take about 15 minutes of cooking.

When the pork loins are done, remove them from the oven and let them stand, loosely covered with foil, for 5 minutes. Cut into thin slices, arrange slices on a serving platter, and spoon pan juices over them.

I served mine with some Parmesan mashed potatoes, and we ended up feeling all fancy for our Monday night dinner.

The flavors were spot on, the sweetness of the apples and the sour orange gave it the right balance. The only downfall was that I overcooked my chops a bit too much, so I made a note to adjust the cooking time to about 15 minutes in order to make sure they did not dry out.

This was part of our June Gutsy Cook Club weekly recipe line up, compliments of Raymond from Your Just Desserts. You can check out the other creations in our Pinterest board.