Ingredients
1 Pork Loin
1 head of garlic, broken out as cloves
1 1/8 cup course ground sea salt
2 bottles of red wine*
16oz Mushrooms, diced coarsely**
1 Onion, diced coarsely
1 tablespoon corn starch
1 dash of olive oil
* I recommend the nice rich red wine, like the Yellow Tail Shiraz,
for this meal. One is for the pork marinade and the mushroom gravy, the other
is to drink with the meal... :)
** The regular white mushrooms work fine, but you can get other
interesting flavors by adding portabello, shitake and other wild mushooms
Kitchen Equipment
You must have a grill with a split burners so you can turn on half the grill
at a time
1 metal broiling pan you don't mind getting a little black from the grill
1 sauce pan for the mushroom gravy
Cooking
Note: This is a little feast that I prepared with my buddy Dr. Eric over the weekend. After eating this recipe, I can personally recommend this method of grilling for any thick cut of meat (pork loin, london broil, etc).
Clean the pork loin and place it in caserole dish / marinating pan. Cut about half of the garlic cloves in half and then cut incisions into the pork loin and push the garlic cloves into the holes. You will want one every 1-2 inches across the meat. Pour about half the bottle of red wine into the dish with the pork and let stand for about 30 minutes.
Get a metal pan to cook the pork in, place the pork in it and rub the outside of the pork with the sea salt. The salt will come off during the cooking to some degree and will not over-salt the meat, so rub on as much as will stay on the pork. This helps create a glaze on the outside of the pork by drawing out the sugar and fat from the meat.
Take the pan to your grill and place it on once side then turn on the grill burner on the other side at its lowest temperature. You will need to turn the meat every 15-20 minutes for a total cooking time of about 45 minutes to an hour. If you have a meat thermometer, the center temp should reach at least 135 for 20 minutes. After you get it slow cooked, crank up both sides of the grill to about medium and place the pork directly on the grill to sear the outside of the loin for about 10 minutes. When the meat comes off the grill, let it sit on the plate for 20 minutes or so to cool and draw some of the the moisture back into the meat. Cutting it while hot will let steam out (the moisture) and the meat will dry too much. Slice it into medalions of pork about 1/4" to 1/2" thick.
When the meat is about half-way done cooking, get a sauce pan and put a dash of olive oil, the onions and the garlic into it. Stir continuously and cook until the onions are soft and then toss in the mushrooms while continuing to stir. Once everything is cooked down and soft, add the wine until everything is just covered. Cover the pan and let simmer.
When the pork goes onto the grill, take the cooking pan and pour the drippings into the mushroom / wine sauce. Continue to let simmer until just before serving and then stir in the corn starch to thicken the gravy. Pour the gravy on the pork in your plate just prior to eating and enjoy!