Plum Stuffed Roast Pork Loin

This is a Swedish classic. Roasted pork loin stuffed with plums and served with pickeled cuccumbers, apple sauce and gravy. I serve mine with a root veggie hash, you can serve it with mashed potatos or whatever you like... I  like my roast pork a bit pink so I roast it until it is 60C in the middle. The health administration (Livsmedelsverket) suggests that you cook pork until it is at least 70C so it's your call. If you get a good pork then I don't think there is much reason to worry. Again, the lower the temperature the longer it roasts and the better it tastes. Today I put the roast in the oven at 100C and then went ice skating with the kids and let it just do it's thing.

I recommend that you start by preparing the cuccumber. Pickled items need to sit for hours to get the right flavor and they should also be served cold so get this out of the way first thing. The meranade is called 123 this can be applied to anything you pickle... beets, herring, etc. 123: one part destilled vinager (ättiksprit), 2 parts sugar and three parts water. Bring to a boil, let it cool then pour in the cuccumbers and some chopped parsley. Place in fridge.

When it comes to the meat, start by cutting in small pockets into the meat so that it can be stuffed with plums.  I'd say anywhere from 6-8 plums is good.  Then you tie up the meat.  Hard to explain how this is done but I found a good video here!  Chop up two carrots, two yellow onions, three garlic gloves, one apple.  Sear the meat in a hot pan on all sides.  Let the vegetables sear with the meat.  Add 3 bayleafs and 4 dl water or even better chicken stock if you have it..  Then place evything in the oven.  I roasted mine at 100C for 3.5 hours.  When it is done take it out and wrap it in tin foil so it can rest for about 15 minutes (this gives the meat a chance to self absorb so that it doesn't loose all the juices when slicing).

The gravy is made from the vegetables and the juice that the meat was roasted with so put all of those items in a pan, add 3dl heavy cream, 1 tbsp blackcurrant gele, salt and pepper.  Cook on stovetop and let it reduce a bit.    You can find the recipe for the apple sauce here!