Braised pork with red wine
While reading up on the No-Knead Bread yesterday (how many of you rushed off to google this after reading the article in ST? just me? okay...), I came across other recipes from NYT's The Minimalist column. Here's one that was so easy I made it today: Braised Pork With Red Wine. If you don't have a (free) NYT subscription, here's the recipe, reproduced.
Braised Pork With Red Wine
Time: About 2 hours
2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into large chunks
Salt and pepper
2 cups fruity red wine, like Beaujolais or Burgundy (pinot noir)
1 cup good stock, or water
1 pound fat carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
10 cloves garlic, more or less, peeled
2 tablespoons butter
Cooked egg noodles for serving
Chopped fresh parsley leaves for garnish.
1. Combine pork, salt and pepper to taste, wine, stock, carrots and garlic in a saucepan, Dutch oven or slow cooker. Bring to a boil, then adjust heat so that mixture simmers steadily but not vigorously. (If using a slow cooker, just turn it to "high" and let cook for at least three hours.)
2. Cook, stirring every half-hour or so, until meat is very tender and just about falling apart, at least an hour and most likely a bit longer. Use a slotted spoon to remove solid ingredients to a bowl, then turn heat to high. (If using a slow cooker, transfer liquid to a saucepan for this step.) Reduce to about a cup, or even less. Taste and adjust seasoning, then lower heat and stir in butter.
3. Add solids to sauce and reheat. Serve over egg noodles, garnished with parsley.
Yield: 4 servings.
The author Mark Bittman has a short write-up on this dish here. He highly recommends pork shoulder because it's marbled and flavourful, and I agree. I cooked mine in the slow cooker (without browning, though he says you get a more complex flavour and better colour with that additional step), and the result is a very tender meat indeed. And as he says, pork shoulder is also cheap. We got almost 1kg of meat for S$10. (Pork shoulder is also great in stir-fries, says my grandma.) Using stock instead of water and reducing the sauce are tricks he borrowed from classic French cooking.
It's amazing how red wine makes everything yummier! I'm thinking here of the Orange Duck Casserole recipe I recommended before. I've been using old bottles of red to make these, but once I run out I'll have to actually pay for them - yikes.
