Capered Pork

I'm on a lifelong quest to find easy fixes for everyday food.  Its pretty much a passion of mine during the week.  If I can take a simple protein, spice it up in a few simple steps and have a ready-to-eat meal on the table in less than 45 minutes, I feel as if I've conquered the world.

I find my inspiration from a ton of places, this week's inspiration came from a cooking class I went to with my fabulous mom and mother-in-law.  (we had a spectacular girls Sunday!)  The cooking class offered a caper-sauce that I could have drank by the gallon!  I had to re-create, and make it my own.  After a week of looking for capers in the grocery store (NOT in the spice aisle as I'd have thought!), I was prepared to make my own fun spin.  If you like a tangy, non-traditional sauce that's light, this is for you!  It paired nicely with pork, but would also go with chicken I imagine.

I also decided to try brining my pork this week.  Shocker that I've never attempted to brine pork before, given my love for all things brined--but I hadn't until now.  Rest assured, I'll never go back.  Peeps, you MUST BRINE PORK.  Seriously, it makes that much of a difference.  Rather than using my go-to-brine, I created a pork-brine, and left the pork roast in for 24 hours.  I'm certain you could skip this step--but it's so simple, why would you, right?

Capered Pork (and potatoes)

Ingredients:

1 pork roast (about 1.2lbs) brined, 24 hours
1/3 cup capers
1 1/3 cups dry white cooking wine
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 tsp cider vinegar (or any white vinegar)
2 Tbs whole grain dijon mustard (or regular whole-grain mustard)
Salt/Pepper to taste

Directions:

Set pork to broil, under 525 degrees.  If desired, sprinkle pork with salt/pepper before cooking.  Cook until done, a SLIGHT pink tint in the middle.  (about 15 minutes)

Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, bring pan to medium heat and add capers.  Let cook for about 2 minutes, add wine. Stir and let cook until reduced by about 1/2.  (about 3-4 minutes)  Add cream, vinegar and cook until the sauce starts to thicken, or about 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and whisk in dijon mustard.  Season with salt/pepper to taste.

Drizzle a bit over pork and potatoes for serving.