Honey on the Brain

This past Wednesday I was looking for something to do with a pork loin roast that I had in the freezer. Ideally, it would be something that I could at least finish in the crock pot. I toyed with the idea of making carnitas with it and turning that into tacos or something similar, but then I flipped through my crock pot cookbooks and found a suggestion that used on-hand ingredients and looked simple enough to throw together.

Honey-Dijon Pork Roast was my answer, and it turned out as good as I'd hoped. I followed the directions mostly, except that I started with a frozen roast, and fired it up to high for the first two hours. I also didn't turn the remains of the pot into a sauce- I didn't think we needed it, the roast was moist enough. I was intrigued by the coriander in the recipe. The instructions said to use 1/2 teaspoon of coriander seeds and crush them a bit, rather than use pre-ground bottle coriander. I store my whole coriander in a box with other Indian Spices, and just pulling those seeds out was a treat for the nose- all those wonderful spices combining and making my mouth water for Indian food! Crushing the coriander produced a slightly lemony scent, and I just knew the pork would be good. And it was. I would repeat this in a second- even for company.

Honey-Dijon Pork Roast

1/2 cup chopped onion
2 apples, peeled, sliced
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon coriander seed, crushed
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 (2-2 1/2 lb) rolled boneless pork loin roast
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon cornstarch

1. In a 4 to 6 quart slow cooker, combine onion and apples. In a small bowl, combine honey, mustard, coriander and salt; mix well. Spread on all sides of pork roast. Place pork over onions and apples.

2. Cover; cook on low setting for 7 to 8 hours.

3. remove pork from slow cooker; place on serving platter. Cover with foil.

4. In a small saucepan, blend water and cornstarch until smooth. Add apple mixture and juices from slow cooker; mix well. Cook over medium heat until mixture boils, stirring occasionally. cut pork into slices, serve pork with sauce.