Vietnamese Caramelized Pork
Oh yes. A couple notes:
- Don't get lean pork — stick with pork butt as recommended.
- This dish doesn't keep — eat it all in one sitting.
Braised pork ragu
Anna came home a few weeks ago with Random House cookbook full of recipes contributed by employees. I think it's actually going to become one of our most-used recipe sources -- cooking as it really is at home, rather than as cookbooks often pretend it to be. This one has immediately entered the regular rotation.
Ingredients
2 1/2 lb. boneless pork shoulder roast (or more if bone-in)
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter
1 large can of whole tomatoes
1 cup red wine
1 tsp each of thyme, oregano, and red chili flakes
1 tbsp fennel seeds
How To
Preheat the oven to 325.
Heat the butter and olive oil in a heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. When the bubbles from the butter subside, brown the pork shoulder on all sides, 10-15 minutes. Add the onions and garlic and saute for a minute. Add the tomatoes, spices, and wine and bring to a boil, then cover and put in the oven for 3-4 hours, turning roughly every hour.
Once the pork is falling apart, remove it from the oven and shred the pork with a fork. Return the meat to the pot, stir it all together, and serve it over pasta.
Momofuku ramen broth
One cold weekend is all it takes to get me thinking about soup, so here we are. This is a recipe that looks much more intimidating than it is. And the ingredients that you may have to go slightly out of your way to get -- dried shiitakes, pork neck bones, konbu -- are well worth the extra effort. A few (okay, maybe more than a few) hours later you'll have a stock so restorative it could bring a zombie back to life. And it'll taste good that you'll be happy to have a some of the leftover ingredients already in hand so you can make another batch.
As is usually the case, this recipe has already been reproduced online. I'll save myself the trouble and just point you there.
A couple notes:
- Don't skimp on the meats. Sure, the numbers look a little ridiculous -- 4 lbs. of chicken, 5 lbs. of pork bones and a pound of smoky bacon for just 8 servings of soup? -- but the result is 8 very, very flavorful servings.
- Don't feel constrained by the toppings. Use what you've got on hand, softboil and egg or two, and be creative.
- But do save the shiitakes from the broth for pickling. These are incredibly easy and absolutely fantastic. See the bottom of the page at the link above for details.
Tomatillo pork stew
Three day weekend. Time to cook. This one is another from Gourmet Today, which I've been using more and more recently.
There's no avoiding it -- the prep here is a pain in the butt. Peeling tomatillos will never be anything but a pain in the butt. Same goes for squeezing oranges. That said, none of it's real complicated. Just make sure you brown the hell out of the pork -- it's worth waiting the extra minute or two to get those suckers crisp, assuming you have decent ventilation in the kitchen. (We don't, but a box fan pointed at the fire escape usually does the trick.)Ingredients
2 lb boneless pork shoulder cut into 1 1/2" cubes
1/4 cup vegetable oil
8 large cloves garlic
1 bottle of dark beer (Smuttynose Old Dog Brown Ale, oh yes)
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice (about 5 oranges' worth)
1 lb tomatillos, husked, rinsed in warm water, and quartered
1 28oz can whole tomatoes drained and chopped, juice reserved
2 large onions, chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
2 jalapenos, chopped with seeds
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
How to
Season the pork liberally with salt and pepper. In a heavy-bottomed pan, heat the vegetable oil until almost smoking. Add the garlic and stir for two minutes or so. Then add the pork in batches and brown on all sides. Don't crowd the pork; if you don't give each piece of pork some space to breath, the liquid let off from the pork will build up and nothing will brown as planned. Remove each batch in turn.
Meanwhile, in a large pot combine the beer, orange juice, tomatillos and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer over low heat until the tomatillos are soft, roughly 20 minutes.
When all the pork has browned, pour off most of the oil and use what remains to soften the onions over medium heat, 8 minutes or so. When the onions are golden and soft, add the tomatillo mixture, pork, cilantro, jalapenos, and some salt and pepper and cook. Scrape the brown bits off the bottom of the pan -- there's flavor hiding down there.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer partially covered, stirring occasionally until meat is tender, about 2 hours. Add black beans and simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for another 10 minutes. Serve with white rice and sour cream and limes.
Rosemary meatballs with polenta
It's a special Hurricane Sandy edition of The Dinner Plate. This monster of a storm has done tons of damage -- Staten Island and the Rockaways are in very bad shape, and downtown Manhattan has been without power for almost five days now. On result of the power outage is that Squarespace employees have been hauling diesel up 17 flights of stairs to power the generators at our datacenter downtown; more details here, here, here, and many other places a google search away. The only reason this site is up right now is because of all that physical labor. Another consequence is that I've been home from work all week (with the exception of pitching in on the bucket brigade a couple times) and cooking up a storm.
Grilled pork chops with grape tarragon salad
My thoughts on this recipe can be summed up in three words: Brine, brine, brine. Dunking the pork chops into a brine with just a few ingredients (a bay leaf, thyme, garlic, salt and sugar) an hour before grilling produces incredibly juicy chops. Don't be afraid to pick out bone-in chops with a little fat around the edges -- it crisps up on the grill and adds a little more moisture. The anise-like tarragon and sweet grapes play very well together.
Pork chop, balsamic tomato mustard sauce
2 bone-in pork chops, one inch thick
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup shallots, chopped
1 cup cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tbsp dijon mustard
How to
Pork chops are a staple around these parts. They're easy and tasty and a relatively blank canvas that can handle any sauce you throw at it.
Heat a couple tablespoons of olive oil in a skillet until the first wisps of smoke appear. Add the pork chops and let them brown on both sides on high heat. Once they're well browned, add the shallots, garlic, balsamic vinegar and enough water or chicken broth to cover the bottom half of the chops.
Cover and turn to low heat. Allow the chops to cook for 5-10 minutes. They should give a little when you poke them. Remove the chops and allow to rest.
Meanwhile, toss the tomatoes and mustard into the skillet and stir. Reduce the sauce to a consistency you like and pour over the chop with a little fresh parsley or thyme. Serve with rice or couscous.