Roast Pork with Caramelized Pineapple

Our friends Allison and Brian gave us a beautiful Roy Yamaguchi cookbook (Hawaii Cooks: Flavors from Roy's Pacific Rim Kitchen) as a housewarming gift, and we spent little time finding recipes we wanted to try. Tonight we gave the Roast Pork with Caramelized Pineapple a try, and were very happy with the results - though now we have over a pound of delicious pork to find uses for... again. Darn :)

Roast Pork with Caramelized Pineapple
2 lbs boneless pork shoulder or butt, trimmed of fat

Marinade:
1 cup pineapple juice
3 bay leaves
1/2 cup sliced celery
1/4 onion, sliced
4 (1/4 inch) slices of fresh ginger
1 Tbspn whole black peppercorns
1 Tbspn whole cloves
3 star anise
1 Tbspn chopped cilantro
2 green onions, coursely chopped
3 slices of rind from a fresh pineapple

Honey Glaze:
1 cup honey
1 Tbspn minced fresh garlic
1 Tbspn minced fresh ginger

2 tspn garlic, minced
2 tspn ginger, minced
2 tspn shallots, minced
2 Tbspn white balsamic vinegar
5 Tbspn extra virgin olive oil
4 caramelized pineapple slices, chopped*
2 cups mesclun

Combine all marinade ingredients in a large bowl. Place pork in the marinade, coating it well. Cover and refrigerate overnight, turning once or twice.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the honey glaze ingredients in small bowl and mix well. Remove the pork from the marinade and place in a roasting pan. Discard the marindade. Coat the pork with the honey glaze. Place the pan in the oven and cook for 50-60 minutes, until the pork is cooked through and an instant read thermometer registers 140 degrees F. Remove from the oven and keep warm.

In a small saute pan, heat some oil over medium heat. Add the shallots and cook for 1 minute. Add the garlic and continue cooking another minute. Add the ginger and cook 1 1/2-2 minutes more, then remove from heat. Combine the garlic, ginger and shallots, vinegar, oil and pineapple in a bowl and mix well with a whisk.

To serve, slice the pork into 1/2 inch thick slices and arrange 3-4 slices on each plate. Place the greens next to the pork and drizzle the garlic-ginger dressing over both. Garnish with caramelized pineapple and serve at once.

* This is one of those recipes you really have to read through - or you'll be surprised to find that you were supposed to bake pineapple for 2 1/2 hours. Whoops! Instead, I threw the pineapple slices in a hot pan with some water and brown sugar, and cooked it down until the sugar browned on the pineapple. Nowhere near as good as what it would've been could I read, but still tasty. Here's the Caramelized Pineapple recipe, for next time:

Caramelized Pineapple
1 fresh pineapple
1 cup water
1/2 cup sugar

Break off the crown of the pineapple and cut 1 inch off the top and bottom. Trim off 1/2 inch of the rind and the eyes in the flesh. Cut the pineapple crosswise into 1/2 inch slices and cut each into 4 wedges. Preheat oven to 250 F. Combine the water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil and continue to boil for 1 minute to dissolve the sugar. Remove from heat. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Dip the pineapple wedges into the sugar syrup and transfer to the baking sheet. Bake 2 1/2 hours, or until the pineapple has dried and the sugar is golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Store in a cool place in an airtight container for up to 1 month.