Pork Rib Roast with Black Currant Tamari Gelee

A trip to the new Sprouts Farmers Market yielded some interesting ingredients such as dried flageolet and fava beans, 100% black currant juice, and a frenched pork rib roast. The flavor concept behind the dish was bitter + sweet + umami. Black currents most freqently show up in the description of red wines, but I doubt many people have even tasted real currants. These are bitter and immediately evoke flavor sensations found in big red wines, so the frequent use in wine descriptions is justified. Currants are particularly tannic, and give the same feel in the mouth as a young full bodied red wine (like a petit sirah). The tannin is perceived by the tast recepters as bitter, but the feel of the tongue changes in the presence of tannin as the chemical reaction with some parts of the tongue actually leatherizes cells in your mouth. Yes that's right, this effect of tannin in the wine world is called astringency; my info comes from my time in Claude Robbins class at the International Wine Guild.

Anyway, after testing a sip of the black currant juice (which incidentally is considered a superfood due to the high levels of antioxidants, potasium, and calcium), I had a shockingly immediate reaction to the very astringent elixir. I wanted to make a sauce that would preserve some of this bitterness, sweeten it up a bit, and put in a background note of umami via the tamari (wheat free soy sauce). As for a preparation, I decided on a loose gelee, thick enough to cling to the pork roast to glaze it and then as a finishishing sauce that wouldn't run all over the plate.


The pork roast was coated in olive oil, roasted at 450F for 20 minutes, glazed, then roasted for another 45 minutes at 300 and glazed twice more. The sauce was composed with 3 cups black currant juice, ~1 cup of brown sugar, a teaspoon of dried marjoram, and 1 tablespoon of tamari; the marjoram was to give the sauce an earthyness. The juice, sugar and marjoram were simmered for 10 minutes, then the marjoram was removed by straining and the tamari was added. As the sauce cooled, I evenly incorporated a couple decent pinches of xanthan gum and guar gum while whisking. This rapidly thickened the sauce to the desired consistency.


The sauce was used for glazing and then reheated to finish the flintstone looking cuttings that came of the roast. This was served with fava beans in a white wine vinaigrette, roasted onions and plum tomatoes drizzled with olive oil, and chili garlic bread (chili powder, minced garlic, unsalted butter, sea salt combined and applied to a fresh loaf of french bread). I really like this flavor pairing and so did my little sous chefs. My wife was less thrilled, mostly because she can't stand cooked fruit or gelatin-like textures (yah can't win em all). What I'll take from this is that there's some real undiscovered potential for black currants, after all, who'd think that they'd work with soy sauce?