The European-style Version
2 pork tenderloins
1.5 tbsp Grey Poupon mustard
A drizzle of Olive oil
White wine vinegar
Dried fennel seed, thyme, oregano
Salt and pepper

Place the pork in an oval baking dish. Smear the mustard all over the pork, and then drizzle a teaspoon or so of olive oil and about a third of a cup of white wine vinegar. Liberally salt and pepper, and then sprinkle a couple pinches of each of the dried herbs (crush up the fennel seed a bit first).

Pre-heat the oven to 425F and make sure the meat is well-coated in the sauce before putting into the oven. After the pork cooks for 10 minutes, turn the oven down to 350F. Flip the tenderloins after 25-30 minutes.

The critical factor is pulling the meat out at the right time. Start checking the temperature about 45 to 50 minutes in. Insert an instant read thermometer and remove each tenderloin when it reads 135. Let rest under foil for five minutes, then slice and serve, spooning some of the delicious sauce on top.

The Asian-style Version
1 tbsp minced fresh ginger
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
A drizzle of olive oil (or sesame oil)
A healthy dose of soy sauce (est 1/3 cup)
2 tsp mirin sauce

Cook in the same way as above.

Pork Loin Roast w Orange Juice and Lime
2 to 2.5lb pork loin roast
5 or 6 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1/2 vidalia onion, sliced
1 very juicy lime, or a couple of normal ones
2/3 cup orange juice
1 tsp ground cumin
salt and pepper

I recommend marinating the meat for half a day or more beforehand.  To make the marinade: zest the lime, finely chop the garlic, and mix it all together with the cumin, salt (for table salt, maybe 1/2 tsp), and a couple pinches of black pepper.  Rub this all around the meat, surround with the onions, pour the orange juice on top, and squeeze the juice from the lime over it all. Cover with plastic wrap, and if you can, turn the meat once or twice as it marinates.

To cook, pre-heat the over to 350F. You can see above that I transferred it all to a larger baking dish.  Cook the pork for about an hour, flipping it halfway, and remove from the oven when an instant-read thermometer registers 140F to 145F.

Cover with foil and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing.  Serve with the onions, which become deliciously candied, and drizzle the sauce from the roasting dish on top (if you left a good portion of fat on your roast, you might skim the sauce first).

Repeat: do not forget to plate the onions! Heaven.

This dish isn’t going to turn me into a fruit-and-meat man, but I will definitely be making it again.

(p.s. I can’t write a blog post without pimping my current startup Aprizi, the reason why my food blogging is so sporadic — please go try it out!)

Meatballs
1 lb ground pork shoulder
1.5 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp kosher salt (halve if you use table salt)
1/4 tsp hot red pepper flakes
12 black peppercorns

Rest of Stew
1 lb dried flageolet beans (alternative: great northern)
1 large spanish or vidalia onion, diced
4 carrots, diced
3 celery stalks, diced
large handful of white button mushrooms, diced
1/2 to 1 cup diced tomato
3 or 4 cloves of garlic, minced
handful of parley
2 fresh rosemary sprigs
1/2 cup dry vermouth or white wine
1 tbsp tomato paste

Cook the flageolet beans until al dente: place in a large pot with 1″ of water above the top of the beans. Add 3 bay leaves, bring to a boil, then remove the lid and simmer. Soaking beforehand will speed up cooking time. While the beans cook, do the next few steps.

Pound up the fennel seed, peppercorns and pepper flakes with a mortar/pestle, then add to the ground meat along with the salt. Mix together then mold into meatballs about 1.5″ in diameter. Heat up your stew pot (I use a dutch oven) on med-high heat with a little olive oil and brown the meatballs. Then set them aside and turn off the heat.

Spoon out most of the oil left in the stew pot, leaving enough to coat the bottom. Turn the heat back on to med-low. Cook the onions until translucent, then add the garlic, celery and carrots. Cook for a few minutes, then add the diced tomato and mushroom.

Separate the parsley stems and leaves, setting the leaves aside. Create a bouquet garnis by tying the parsley stems, rosemary sprigs, and 1 bay leaf together with kitchen twine. Add the bouquet garnis to the pot, and continue to let the vegetables gently cook.

Once the beans are al dente, drain or optionally reserve the cooking liquid. Add the beans and meatballs to the stew pot, add the wine, and add either water or the bean cooking liquid until the liquid level is about three-quarters up to the top of the food. Make sure the bouquet garnis is immersed, cover and either place the pot in a 350F oven or let simmer on the stove top.

After 40 minutes, taste for salt and gently stir in the tomato paste.

Remove about 1/2 of beans and vegetables to a food processor and puree.  Return to the pot and continue to cook until the beans are soft and the flavors have melded.  This step improves the texture, thickening the stew (I hate the common use of flour or starch to thicken).

Chop up the parsley leaves waiting in the wings all this time. Serve with the parsley and a little fresh pepper scattered on top.

It is so nice to have grilling season back upon us. In many cases, our jobs as cooks is to get out of the way and let the food and fresh product do the talking.  Here are notes from Saturday’s dinner, when we had a few guests over for Lisl’s birthday.

Three Bean Salad

1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of garbonzo beans (chickpeas)
1 can of black beans
4 ears of corn
4 sweet peppers (multiple colors if possible), cut into bite sized pieces
1 red onion, diced
1 bunch of spring onion, diced
Large bunch of cherry tomatoes, halved
1 jalapeno pepper, minced
Large bunch of cilantro, washed well and chopped
limes
lemon
salt and pepper
olive oil
champagne vinegar

I make this salad slightly different every time, but my basic routine is the following.  Carefully wash the canned beans in a colander, drain and add to the bowl.  Cook each ear of corn, still in the husk, in the microwave for 2 and a half minutes, then remove husk and take kernels off with a knife once cool enough to touch.  Dice the spring onions, using all of the green part, and toss it in with the diced red onion, tomatoes, jalapeno and sweet peppers ( I like using a mix of red, green, orange and yellow).

Dress the salad by taste.  Stir in the cilantro, juice from 1 lemon, juice from 3 or 4 limes, a sprinkle of olive oil and champagne vinegar (but go light on the oil and vinegar — you want the citrus to stand out).  Add salt to taste, and add some freshly ground pepper. Depending on how juicy your limes are, the number of limes you want to use will vary.

I like dressing this ahead of time so everything absorbs some of the citrus flavor.  This is a great, hearty and bright salad for serving a large number of people.

Pork Tenderloin Marinade

Large handful of parsley, chopped
Several sprigs of fresh oregano, leaves removed and chopped
4 large cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp Olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
Pinch of fresh pepper

I made this marinade for use on three pork tenderloins — the amounts are ballpark but you can’t really go wrong here.  With a mortar and pestle, mash up the garlic and herbs.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients then rub all over the pork.  Cover and place in the fridge for several hours, then grill by searing the pork and then cooking on a cooler part of your grill until the meat hits the right point of firmness.

Side note: I was cooking on my brother-in-law’s grill the other weekend and I was reminded how difficult it is to work with unfamiliar equipment. I totally overcooked the chicken.  On my own grill, where I know how and where heat distributes, I was really pleased with getting these tenderloins perfect.  Lisl laughed and said it shows just how tough those Top Chef challenges are when they get thrown into crazy circumstances.

Shallot & Lemon Salad Dressing

There’s nothing rocket science here, but I’m addicted to the following salad and dressing and figured I would make a note of it:

Mince up a big shallot (or more than one shallot) and let the shallots sit for 20 to 30 minutes in the juice from 1 lemon and a couple splashes of champagne wine vinegar.  Then wisk in some olive oil, a dab of dijon mustard, and a pinch of salt and pepper.  Toss over a bunch of baby arugula (rocket), with some nice tomatoes and maybe some sliced mushrooms or red pepper. Can’t beat it.

Addendum

I’ve had Disqus installed on my tech blog forever and I *finally* have it installed here.  I much prefer the threaded comment system and after a few goes, it looks like it has imported all the old comments.

I spent days scratching my head over what to make for Christmas dinner, and decided to go with a classic pork roast.  With the Battle for Cold/Flu Pass raging in this house, full guns ablazing, we didn’t actually have Xmas dinner until two days *after* Christmas (naturally, we didn’t make elder munchkin wait that long to open her presents).  Still we have managed to have a very nice holiday season.  I hope you have as well.  Here is the recipe for the pork roast:

Rosemary, garlic and mustard pork roast

4 or 5 lb boneless pork loin (of course, recipe will work for smaller roasts as well)
garlic cloves, peeled
1 to 2 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 to 2 tbsp grain mustard
olive oil
apple cider vinegar
salt
white wine or dry vermouth

To marinate the pork, start by slicing some garlic cloves into little pointy-ended stakes. With a paring knife, poke a hole in the pork and the stuff the garlic piece inside. Do this all over your pork loin, spacing them out by an inch or two depending on your love of garlic. Then rub about a tablespoon of kosher salt (less if using fine table salt), the mustard and the rosemary all over the pork. Place in something you can put in the fridge, then drizzle olive oil and a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar over the top. Cover and place in the fridge for one or two days.

To roast, remove the pork from the fridge, place in a baking dish, and let it come to room temperature for about 20 minutes while you pre-heat the oven to 450F. Roast the pork for 15 minutes, then pour 1/2 cup of wine or vermouth over the top.  Turn the heat down to 325F.

It should take the pork about 2 hours to cook, although start checking with an instant read thermometer earlier.  Every half hour or so, spoon the liquid from the baking dish over the pork.  If the dish is dry, add a little more wine or water.  Remove the pork and let it rest (place a piece of foil on top to keep it from getting to cold while you finish any remaining parts of the meal) when the instant read thermometer gets to 145F or 150F.

To make the gravy: add some water and wine/vermouth to the baking dish, a small amount of flour (maybe a quarter to half a tsp) and a pinch of salt and deglaze the dish on the stove top (note: if you are using ceramic, then get a heat diffuser rather than having the dish right on the flame).  Remove the excess oil — one simple method is to pour it into a measuring cup and then pour off the oil that rises to the top.

We served this with some brussel sprouts, parboiled and then sauted with champagne wine vinegar, and roasted potatoes.

I hope that this post sees you all well, and happy holidays from our family to yours!

Theoretically, I should experiment more with dry rubs but, well, it’s just… for me, this stuff is like the grill equivalent of crack.  Crack and pork. Pork and crack. I play around with ratios and leading actors, but I always come back to the same basic cast of characters.  When these players hit the stage of Fleisher’s berkshire pork, spectacular things happen.

If you are looking to shut down all table conversation, and revert your guests to a neanderthal state of grunting and gnawing, try the following:

Buy two racks of (berkshire if possible) pork spare ribs for every 3 people.

With a mortar and pestle, grind up:
1 tsp coriander seed
1 tsp cumin seed
1 tsp yellow mustard seed
1/2 tsp black pepper

Then stir in:
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp kosher salt
heaping tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp dried oregano

I sometimes use pre-ground cumin, but I really like using the seeds for the coriander, mustard seed, and black pepper for that extra texture.  I also will note that I don’t bother removing the membrane on the bottom side of the ribs.

Rub the spice mixture all over the ribs, then place them in a suitable holder (I use a baking dish), cover with plastic wrap, and return to the fridge for 6 hours or more (overnight is ideal).

You can cook these with indirect heat on the grill, or with low heat in the oven.  In this case, it was raining, so I baked these on broiler trays (so any melted fat didn’t pool) for 3 to 3.5 hours at 250F degrees.

That’s it. Easy peasy. Dig in caveman!

Urgh gllrgh mmmmmmmm

The ribs before cooking

Additional notes: I usually don’t use oregano with this dry rub, but really enjoyed it here.  Another good spin is to add some heat with cayenne or red pepper flakes.

I keep on playing around with pork shoulder braises, and what’s not to love? They make a great meal, and the leftovers can be used in a myriad of ways such as pulled pork sandwiches, stews, chilis, meat pies, etc.  The picture above was the only one I had time to grab for this recipe, but I was so happy with it, I wanted to record it up here.  I made it the night before, so putting on dinner the next day was a snap, and boy was it good!

Pork Shoulder Braised with White Wine and Napa Cabbage

5 or 6 lb pork shoulder butt, on the bone (preferably Berkshire pork)
1/2 lb slab bacon, 1 to 1.5 inches thick
1/2 napa cabbage, sliced 1/4″ thick
3 medium vidalia or yellow onions, chopped
2 carrots, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
4 or 5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 1/2 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp coriander seed
bouquet garnis of parsley, winter savory, and 2 bay leaves, wrapped in string
salt and pepper
dry white wine
water
grapeseed oil

Preheat oven to 300F.  In a mortar and pestle, coarsely grind the fennel and coriander seed.

Remove the skin from pork shoulder and score the fat. Rub 1 tsp of salt and the ground spices around the pork, let it come to room temperature for 20 minutes or so. Heat a splash of grapeseed oil in a dutch oven until very hot. Sear all sides of the pork and then remove to the side.

Slice the slab bacon 1/2 inch thick and brown it in the dutch oven, then turn the heat down to medium and remove the bacon to the side as well.

Saute the onions until they start to turn translucent, then add in the carrot, celery, garlic, and spices.  Place the pork shoulder on top and pour in half a bottle of white wine.  Bring the liquid about 1/4 up the side of the pork, adding water if needed.  Scatter  the slab bacon around, place the bouquet garnis in the pot, and scatter around the napa cabbage.  Cover and cook for two hours, then flip the shoulder and cook for another 2 hours.

Remove the pork shoulder to a cutting board and let cool for 15 minutes, then using two forks gently pull the shoulder apart to separate the bones and fat from the meat.  Also remove the slab bacon.  If you refridgerate the pork and bacon overnight, as I did, then slice any large chunks of pork into half-inch-thick pieces, and sear the meat on both sides in a hot non-stick skillet.  Do the same with the bacon, and plate, grinding some coarse salt and pepper onto the pork.

If you are serving the braise immediately, skim the liquid fat off the top of the braised vegetables in the pot. If you put in the fridge overnight, the fat will solidify on the top making it much easier to remove.   Re-heat in a pot, not a microwave!  Ladle several large spoonfuls into a food processor and blend into your gravy.

With a slotted spoon to drain excess liquid, plate some of braised vegetables next to the meat and serve with a side of your choice — in our case, Lisl made a salad of fresh peas (parboiled and then immediately cooled in ice water), jicama, red onion, and cherry tomatoes, with a lemon juice, olive oil and thyme dressing.

I barely know how to start this post, or write it. It was the story of the recipe that turned into three. Our saga begins with our protagonist (that would be me) adapting a Richard Olney recipe for stuffed savoy cabbage. Enter cabbage stage left. Enter stuffing stage right.  The audience gasps.

Now, I don’t know what kind of uber-cabbages Olney was eating in the south of France, but as my imaginary heckler would say, “zat stuffing will nevarre feet in zat cabbage! Zat ees not a vrai Franche cabbage!”

I had a lot of extra stuffing. I mean I had 6 pork pastries and a meatloaf worth of extra stuffing.  But like all good tales, our protagonist learned along the way and came to a happy conclusion. The learnings: that I prefer to stuff individual leaves to an entire cabbage, and that this stuffing makes a damn good meat pastry/pie!  Yes valiant readers, unlike a French movie, this tale ends happily (and with no cigarettes or accordian music either!).

In order to make this as readable as possible, I am going to start with the stuffing ingredients (which have been halved) and process, and then discuss two delicious uses.

Making the Stuffing

1/2 lb ground or chopped pork
1/8 lb guanciale (or good bacon), chopped
1/8 cup long grain white rice
1/8 cup farro (optional, otherwise use 1/4 cup rice)
5 large leaves of Swiss chard
3 of the best stems from the swiss chard, chopped
1/2 large onion, finely chopped
1/2 tbsp butter
1 small clove garlic, minced
1 medium-sized roma tomatoes, skinned, seeded and chopped
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp dried oregano
chicken or vegetable stock
salt
pepper
nutmeg

In a medium saucepan, bring some water to boil and dunk the tomatoes for 30 seconds (having carved a shallow X in the flower end) in order to skin them.  Bring the water back to a boil, and boil the rice and farro for 12 minutes, then quickly drain. (Note: the farro is optional, but even at this small amount, it brings a nice flavor to the stuffing)

Parboil the chard leaves for 4 minutes, drain and cool, then squeeze out the moisture with your hands and chop.

On medium low heat, saute the guanciale (or bacon) until it is just browning (i.e. not yet crispy), then remove to the side.  Leave the melted fat in the pan, turn the heat up slightly and brown your finely chopped or ground pork, and remove to the side.  In the same pan and in the melted fat, saute your onions, chopped chard stems, garlic and butter on low heat for a few minutes.

Stir in the rice, farro, guanciale, pork, tomatoes, chard leaves, thyme, oregano and a pinch of nutmeg and cook for a minute or two, then turn off the heat, letting the mixture cool and tasting for salt and pepper.

[Differences with Olney: he does not pre-cook his stuffing, but I like browning the meat and believe that this process makes it safer to season the mixture with salt and pepper, ie you can taste it without worrying about the raw meat; I also added the use of farro and chard stems, and replaced salt pork with guanciale]

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Recipe 1: Pork Pastries with Pickled Onions

This was the recipe shown in the picture at the top of the blog post, and it made for an great meal.  A mmmfffffgh you can’t talk because your mouth is so happily stuffed kind of meal.  The below amounts will feed 4 ravenous adults.

Pâte Brisée Pastry
Enough for 12 to 15 5″ rounds
3 cups unbleached all purpose flour*
18 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 tsp salt
icewater

*Note on the flour: I know many people are trying to switch to weight, but I did not have a scale handy, and frankly, since some of my favorite cookbook authors each have their own ratio of flour to butter, I don’t think scientific precision is necessary here for a great result.

There are many ways to make pate brisee pastry. This currently is my favorite method but use whatever method you like best: chop the butter into 1/4 inch cubes and then place in the freezer for a few minutes.  Combine the flour and salt in a food processor, and then add the butter. Pulse quickly twice.  Add 2 tablespoons of water, then pulse, and repeat twice more.

Dump the loose mixture onto your work surface and push it together with your hands.  As needed, add small amounts of ice cold water and mix it in until the pastry dough is starting to stick together.  You do not want to overwork it, or add so much water that the dough is sticky, and there can still be some crumbly elements that are not yet sticking to the mass.  Push it all together into 4 separate balls, including as much of the crumbly elements remaining, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat oven to 375F.

Place your stuffing in the food processor and pulse several times until everything is more finely chopped and mixed.

Flour your work surface and roll out one of the balls to approx. 1/8″ thickness, leaving the others in the fridge until needed. You can make whatever size meat pies you want: little 3″ diameter circles like empanadas, or in my case, larger 5.5″ diameter circles that were made by inverting and pressing down with a rimless bowl.  Use a paring knife to trace the circle outline and remove the circle of dough to a different surface.

Withe 3″ circles, you might only want to use a heaping teaspoon of the stuffing. These larger rounds took 1.5 to 2 tablespoons of stuffing.  Wisk up an egg wash (just beat an egg) and apply it around the stuffing with a brush. Fold over the circle creating a half-circle, and use a fork to flute the edges and create the seal.  You can also apply the egg wash to the top and sides of the pie to get a beautiful golden color and gloss, although you can see with the top photo that I did not bother with that step this time around.

Place the pies upright on a baking tray and cook in the oven for 30 to 50 minutes, until nicely golden.

I served these pies with some pickled red onions, and the combination (taking them both in the same bite) was just fantastic. You can do a fast pickle, where you put the sliced onions in a hot mixture, or take a more patient approach. In this case, I applied Stephane’s pickling method for ramps, which you can find halfway down this post [link].

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Recipe 2: Stuffed Cabbage or Cabbage Leaves

Whether you want to stuff the entire cabbage or just the leaves, the first step is the same: remove the outer green leaves of the cabbage, trim the stem, bring a large pot of water to boil and then simmer the cabbage for 10 to 15 minutes, drain in colander and let cool.

To stuff the full cabbage, lay it atop a large square of cheesecloth and gently peel back the outer 20 or so leaves. Then remove the heart by slicing across the core, being careful not to cut through the stem holding your 20 leaves. You can then chop up some of the heart and add to the stuffing, if desired. Shape the stuffing into a ball, placing it atop the center, and reform the cabbage leaf by leaf. Enclose the cabbage with the cheesecloth and tightly tie off the top using kitchen string. This can be kept in the fridge overnight, or you can move ahead to cooking, covered in chicken or vegetable broth (you might need as much as 3 to 5 quarts depending on pot and cabbage sizes), for 3 to 4 hours at a very light simmer.

To serve, place it in a bowl and unfold the top of the cheesecloth. Place a plate on top of the bowl and flip. Remove the cheesecloth, and flip the cabbage back into the bowl.

Now, serving an entire cabbage has a nice rustic, family feel to it, but we decided we preferred individually stuffing cabbage leaves (or if you prefer, large chard leaves with the stems removed). The advantage of stuffing leaves is that you can just get two cabbages and use as many leaves as you need, not having to worry about matching stuffing amount to cabbage size (although that problem did lead to delicious pork pastries!).  Individual leaves also create nicely packaged portions.

To stuff individual leaves, mold the stuffing into individual meatballs 1.5 or 2 inches thick, and roll each one up in a parboiled cabbage leaf. Place in an oven capable pot, like a large dutch oven, and pour enough heated broth to cover. Place in an oven set to 325F and cook for an hour or two.

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Postscript: Meatloaf

As I mentioned, I did also make a meatloaf with extra stuffing (which had gone through the food processor, similar to pork pastry recipe), by mixing in two eggs, molding into a loaf on a baking dish, covering with bacon, and cooking for an hour at 350F.  It was a huge hit with my 4 year old, and I enjoyed it paired with a shallot, spring onion and mushroom pilaf.  I still prefer my normal meatloaf recipe, but this made for a nice change.

Rainy weekends call for tinkering in the kitchen. Tinkering, however, runs smack up against one of the hidden catches to having children.  They never tell you this beforehand, for fear of putting you off.  It belies description, this 10th circle of hell, this other-worldly zone of chaos, sugar, and tears.  See, just a few words and you already know what I am talking about: children’s birthday parties.

Like Sartre’s No Exit, you cannot escape.  The unwritten rule is that your child has to go to every birthday party of every other child in his or her class.  And (warning: you cannot escape this either), those children have to come to your child’s party too. They, and by “They” I of course refer to SPECTRE, who after some market testing decided to rebrand under the code M.O.M.S. … They insist on attendance, but (wait for it) they want you to take the kiddo. It’s right there in the M.O.M.S. 21st Century Handbook: when facing suicide mission, find patsy to take the fall.

Fear not. With almost catlike powers of resurrection, I have emerged from these experiences, emotionally scarred, occasionally paint splattered, and usually hard of hearing.  Kitchen tinkering has been disturbed, oh so unjustly, but it has taken place as it can.  This weekend’s journey took us through the beginnings of pickled limes, slow baked dry rub pork, and the stuffed cabbage that kept on giving (subject of another post).

Like many these days, I am interested in the DIY world of charcuterie, pickling, etc.  I dug up this recipe on Cookstr for pickling limes, and am 3 days into the process.  I’m not actually going to be able to taste the results for another month, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.  The recipe brought to the fore once more just how difficult it can be to write cooking instructions.  You try to make things clear and simple, and questions pop up from every which way.

In my case, the recipe called for 10 limes. How big? Are the jars to be stuffed tight (well, I’m apparently supposed to stir it for 6 days)? OK, stir all the spices and salt into the bowl… do I need to try to get every last bit of salt from the sides of the bowl once the limes are in the jar?  And in my case, 2.5 cups of olive oil was not enough (I added more).  Did I do something wrong? Hopefully no to the latter, because I am charging ahead and will fill you in on the results in a month if they don’t poison me!

Slow Baked Dry Rub Pork

I was forced to do another “tinker” move with some beautiful country style pork ribs I had picked up at Fleishers. My grill is out of action while I wait for some parts, so I was lamenting what to do with the meat.  Then I realized, you can cook meat on indirect heat for ages on a grill, so why not in the oven?  Result: the meat came out melt-in-your-mouth beautifully, and now I’m wondering why I’ve never done this before as an alternative to broiling and braising during the off season.

First step is to whip up a dry rub for the meat.  There are a million directions to take a dry rub, but here is one mixture that you want to grind all together:

Dry Rub
1 tsp salt
1 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1 dried bay leaf

Rub the ground spices all over the meat.  Place the meat on baking dishes and into the oven set at 275F.  Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, then flip and lower heat to 250F.  Continue baking for another 3 hours, flipping about once an hour, and periodically basting the tops of the meat with the melted fat.

For this to work, you don’t want meat that is too lean. As you can see in the above picture, the pork I was using had a lovely amount of fat (and Fleishers pork in general is less lean than typical US supermarket pork). Another idea I had for this kind of dish was to lay some smoked bacon strips around the pork in the baking dish, and regularly baste the tops of the meat with the melted bacon fat.

Say hello to my li’l frennes, sacrificed to the lime pickle.

The meal began when I made another pilgrimage to Fleishers, the exquisite butcher in Kingston NY, and walked away with a bunch of goodies including a 3lb berkshire pork shoulder. As everyone knows, great ingredients make great meals, and berkshire pork is far-and-away superior to the overly-lean pork you get in American supermarkets. I like working with bone-in cuts; flavor is better and I like the texture that comes with gently shredding the meat away from the fat and bone at the end.

Wanting to try a new flavor profile with the pork, I turned to the Internets and discovered an interesting recipe on Epicurious. I didn’t really follow the recipe’s methods, but the flavor inspiration was fantastic. The braised fennel was transported some something entirely new.

Pork Shoulder Braised with Ginger, Fennel, and Citrus
Inspired by a recipe in Gourmet, Jan 2004
3lb bone-in pork shoulder serves 4

3 to 5 lb bone-in pork shoulder, preferably Berkshire pork
3/4 tsp black peppercorns
3/4 tsp fennel seed
1/4 tsp coarse salt
zest of a navel orange
zest of a lime
1 large vidalia (sweet) onion, chopped
5 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1 large* piece of ginger, sliced thickly
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sherry cooking wine
2 to 3 cups chicken broth
2 large or 3 medium fennel bulbs
1 tbsp fennel fronds, finely chopped
cilantro (optional)
lime juice

Prep: with a mortar and pestle, crush the fennel seeds, peppercorns and salt, and mix in the orange and lime zest. Also bring the chicken stock to a boil and then turn off the heat. Pre-heat oven to 300F.

To prep the pork shoulder, I cut the skin off (saved it to make crackling later), and left most of the fat on for the braising process, slicing into it with a criss-cross fashion to make it easier to rub spices into and easier to remove after the braise is done.

Heat a splash of grapeseed or vegetable oil in a large dutch oven until very hot. Sear the pork shoulder 1 to 2 minutes on each side and remove from the pot. When this cools, rub the spice and zest mix all over the pork and into the cuts in the fat.

Let the dutch oven cool slightly, then add the chopped onions. Saute the onions on medium-low heat for a few minutes, then add in the crushed garlic cloves, ginger slices, and cinnamon stick. Saute for 10 minutes, add in the sugar, and cook for another 5 minutes.

Stir in the soy sauce and sherry and bring to a simmer. Nestle the pork shoulder into the sauce, and pour in enough chicken stock so that liquid comes about halfway up the meat. Bring the liquid again to a simmer and then cover and place in oven for an hour. After an hour, flip the shoulder and return to oven for an hour.

Chop the tops off of the fennel bulbs and a thin slice off of the bottom. Halve the bulbs and then cut into 1/4 inch slices. Often with fennel you will want to remove the core, but that is optional here because the fennel with be braised.

Scatter the fennel slices and fennel frond around the pork, cover and return to oven. After 30 minutes, stir the fennel gently. Place the uncovered pot back in the oven for another one to one-and-a-half hours, basting the top of the pork every 30 minutes or so. I also removed the cinnamon stick during this last phase.

Left to right: spice rub on pork, after browning; 2. cooking the onions; 3. adding the fennel part-way through the braise; 4. separating the meat from bones and fat

You can let this cook in the oven until you are almost ready to serve, or re-cover the pot and bring it to the stovetop on very low heat to stay warm if you need the oven for another dish.

Preparing to Serve
Remove the pork shoulder to a cutting board and separate the meat from the fat and bones with two forks. Gently pull apart the larger pieces of meat (they should pull apart quite easily). Salt lightly.

Making the sauce: Skim the excess fat off of the top of the liquid and remove and discard the ginger slices (not cutting them too small makes this easier). Remove most of the braised fennel to a side bowl, and then blend the liquid and vegetables in the pot with an immersion blender (or carefully in a food processor or blender).

Serve by spooning some sauce on top of the pork and top with a little freshly chopped cilantro (optional), some freshly squeezed lime juice, and a little more sauce.

*Note: I don’t have the weight of the ginger, but I used a piece about 3″ long and 1.5″ thick.

Serving Notes: We served this with potatoes cooked in beer, and reversed the normal order by having a small salad afterwards, which acted as a really nice palate cleanser. The salad was merely baby arugula (rocket) and feta cheese, with a lemon and olive oil dressing. Serve the meal with a medium-to-strong bodied red wine, like a zinfindel or cabernet sauvignon.

The sauce was so good, I froze the extra for future use.