Perfect Rainy June Fare: Smoky Pork Stew
It’s been raining in New York City for essentially all of June. Aside from that, the thermometer has barely topped 70 degrees. In other words, it sucks. But, cool and rainy June weather does have one advantage: I’m still able to use my oven and cook stuff low and slow, which normally I could only bear to do in my apartment in the winter.
Cooking (and shopping) pretty much day-to-day, I accumulate a good deal of random leftover ingredients in my fridge. Not so much finished products, but, say, a pint of leftover crushed tomato from a 28-ounce can, one lonely bottle of beer, a few carrots, two delicious links of chorizo. Rather than buy more stuff, I consider this a perfect culinary gift and challenge, as it’s a fairly safe rule that any good ingredients thrown into a pot and simmered for hours will wind up tasting good.
So, taking the tally of my fridge’s contents, I needed but one thing: a protein. My friendly butcher told me he had an excess amount of Berkshire pork shoulder (always ask where it came from. If they don’t know, don’t buy it), and would cut me a sweet deal. So, with 2.25 pounds of cubed pork shoulder in my possession, it was time. There was very little prep-work involved here other than figuring out what else I could throw into the pot. Diced veg, chorizo … from here, it’s all technique:
First things first, brown the pork. After a light (and I mean light) coating in seasoned flour, the chunks of pork were cooked on a pretty high flame until nice and brown. For braising, this is the key. Take the time and make sure everything gets deep brown, as that’s where your flavor will develop from. Once brown, set aside on a plate for later. Don’t worry about the brown, burnt bits on the bottom of the pan. They will be employed soon enough.
Once the pork is all browned and most of the fat removed, saute the chorizo in the same pan to get all of its paprika-spiked oils flowing. Set chorizo aside with pork. In the chorizo-oil, toss your veg (carrot, onion and garlic in this case… add celery if you have it) into the pan and cook until they soften. Here, you don’t want browning because they’ll turn to mush … just a little color.
Speaking of veg, as always, feed your bunny the carrot peelings:
Once the veg have sweated a bit, it’s time to deglaze and get all that bottom-of-the-pan goodness up. I had one sad bottle of Brooklyn Lager sitting in my fridge for far too long, so, about half of it was dumped into the pan with some vigorour scraping of the bottom to release all those flavor bombs.
Next, the pint of crushed tomato and a quart or so of chicken stock was thrown in, about two tablespoons of sherry vinegar plus a little bundle of rosemary and thyme and two bay leaves. This is the imperative time to season: Salt and pepper for sure, but I was going deep on this one, so I added a nice teaspoon of smoked spanish paprika, my favorite spice of all time.
Once this gets a little bubbling action going on, return the pork and chorizo to the pot, give it a stir, and cover it. If you have an oven-proof pot, throw it in the oven (275-300 degrees), covered, for about 75-90 minutes. After that time, take the cover off and let it go another 45 minutes so the liquid reduces by about 1/3. Remove from oven, discard bay leaves and herb bundle.
For starch to soak up all of the stewy love, I went with a childhood favorite: egg noodles. Obviously, you can use anything you want here — rice, mashed potatoes, etc., but polenta would be my alternate choice. Top your starch with smoky heaven and enjoy. Beverage pairing suggestion? A nice crisp wheat beer or a sharp white wine, say a Spanish Albarino.
Get Yer Chef On — More of My Cooking Posts: Roasted Bone Marrow | Lobster Stock | Ricotta Cheese | Po Boy Sandwich | Supermarket Eggs vs. Farmer’s Market Eggs | Leftover Surprise
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Can you bring some of that by the True/Slant office?
I guess great minds do think alike, when I did my marketing this morning I picked up some oxtails to make a ragout and apples to make a pie, defiantly still stew weather!
Amen, Brian. No better way to make a rain-soaked day into something productive than with some rustic, stick-to-your-ribs braising.
Let me know how the oxtails come out. Big fan (if you couldn’t have assumed that from my other posts)
In response to another comment. See in context »Oxtail ragout was a staple of my childhood, the good old days when oxtail was cheap and not considered fancy eats!
In response to another comment. See in context »Mike — Another rain-soaked June dish might (might) be bluefish. But I have never, ever tasted a decent bluefish dish, because no one who’s prepared it in front of me did it right. Oily, bony, gamy. Thus, I’ve released every bluefish I’ve ever caught since age 17. Perhaps the French have a way?
There is no good way to blue fish, it’s a dreadful fish and all of them should be tossed back into the sea!
In response to another comment. See in context »Scott —
When in need of a recipe or idea for anything that swims, I will always point you toward Dave Pasternack, the chef at Esca in NYC. He is a fish whisperer. Here’s his recipe for baked bluefish: http://events.nytimes.com/recipes/5988/2002/07/24/Baked-Bluefish/recipe.html
In response to another comment. See in context »Thanks, Mike. It’s a good excuse to go down the shore.
In response to another comment. See in context »Hey Mike, This is a fan letter for the bunny. Love the bunny. A lot. v.
Thanks! His name is Bruno and he has made and will continue making many appearances in the future.
In response to another comment. See in context »Oh man, this sounds really freaking good. I think I’m gonna make it this weekend (and buy a bunny to eat up the scraps). I’ve pretty much worn out Jamie Oliver’s Proper Bloke’s Sausage pasta recipe by now and want something else to do with all that piggy I’ve got lying around. Thanks!
Sounds delicious…So…are we fattening up the rabbit?
Funny … when he acts up, I always tell him there’s a le creuset pot, a bottle of wine and a jar of mustard waiting for him. He can’t understand me, but I’m pretty sure he gets the drift.
In response to another comment. See in context »Yum, except I recommend whole grain or whole wheat pasta.