Lentil and Sauerkraut Soup

It’s winter! Kind of, sort of. There is snow on the ground at 8600 ft. finally. It’s been cold. Finally. This morning, a frigid negative something. Soup is definitely in season now.

This recipe is adapted from one in Gourmet. The original called for a hunk of smoked pork butt. (Reminder: pork butt is not the posterior. The cut known as butt is the shoulder.) I couldn’t find any smoked butt so I used a hunk of smoked ham. You could use smoked ham hocks. The point is, you want something smoked and piggy. I enhanced the porky flavor further by using 1/2 water and 1/2 ham stock.

Lentil and Sauerkraut Soup
(serves 8)

1 1/2 pounds smoked ham or 2 smoked ham hocks
7 cups ham stock (Penzeys sells a very good concentrate soup base)
7 cups water
1 pound lentils, rinsed
3 carrots, thinly sliced
4 ribs celery, thinly sliced
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 bay leaves
1 cup drained sauerkraut, preferably the good deli stuff or homemade
1/4 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
salt

Combine ham, ham stock, water, lentils, carrot, celery, onion, and bay leaves in a large soup pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, and partially cover. Simmer for about 1 hour (an hour and a half at 8600 ft.) until lentils are tender. Remove pork and allow to cool 10 minutes. Cut into bite-sized pieces and return to soup. Add sauerkraut, vinegar, and black pepper. Taste for salt; the pork, stock, and the sauerkraut are salty so you may need very little. Cook uncovered for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Discard bay leaves and serve with a rustic crusty bread.

Visiting the Adirondacks: Mountains, Lakes, and Smoked Pork!

I visited the Adirondacks, in northern New York State, recently. It’s a beautiful place, full of lakes, rushing rivers, and tree-covered mountains. The Adirondacks were the “wilderness” place to be among the moneyed set long before places like Yosemite or Yellowstone. If you love the outdoors, you should definitely visit. You can canoe and hike and fish, or just relax by a lake.

Most of the Adirondack Preserve is a sleepy place so if you don’t like those outdoorsy things, make your base the eastern side of the park, near Lake George and Lake Placid. The western side is far less commercialized and has become even less so in the last decade. I visited in 2011 for some fall hiking and the Great Recession hasn’t been kind to the little towns up there. Lots of “for lease” signs in restaurants and storefronts. If you want to spend a little money to help out a bunch of small businesses, head that way. If you like to hike, it’s a paradise.

The view of Blue Mountain Lake from the Adirondack Museum

I also highly recommend that you stop at the Adirondack Museum in Blue Mountain Lake and The Wild Center in Tupper Lake, but not on the same day. Each one will easily take you a full day to explore. Both are excellent museums. The Adirondack Museum covers the cultural side of Adirondack history, including Native Americans, logging, boating, recreation, and the Great Camps. The Wild Center covers the natural history side of things. The Skywalk there is a fantastic interpretive nature walk, geared to visitors of any age. And they have river otters, absolutely adorable playful otters-one of my favorite animals.

They sell maple syrup at Oscar’s too and I found that their price was quite good, after shopping around

Back on the eastern side of the preserve, on the way up from Albany, is the town of Warrensburg. It’s a short way off the Northway (I-87) at exit 23. If you love pork products, you NEED to detour to Oscar’s Smokehouse on the north end of town. They make a huge selection of smoked and cured meats. They are also a full-service butcher, so you can pick up some luscious steaks and chops there too. We tried their Irish bacon (more meat, less fat than American bacon), traditional and maple breakfast sausage (both delicious but go for the maple ones because, well, you are surrounded by some of the best maple sugaring forest around!), their fully cooked spare ribs (sauce is KC-style), their house prosciutto, and applewood smoked ham. Everything is fantastic. They don’t make sandwiches but you can get bread there, along with sliced (smoked if you like) cheese, their own sinus-clearing sweet mustard, and various salads. They will slice any of their deli meats for sandwiches. Just what you need for a first class picnic. They also sell pies, which we didn’t get to try, but they looked and smelled delicious.

The Adirondacks may not be on your vacation radar, but it should be. The area is beautiful and full of outdoors activities. Or, if you are just looking for a place to relax by a lake, you’ll have plenty of them to choose from!

Beans and Pork

Not too much pork though. Just enough to lend delicious piggy flavor to the beans. Italians love beans and I am particularly enamored with many wonderful Italian bean recipes, such as this one from Fagioli, The Bean Cuisine of Italy by Judith Barrett. I’ve made a few minor modifications.

Beans and Pork
(serves 8)

2 cups dried navy beans or cannellini beans
6 oz. salt pork or pancetta, cut into 1″ dice
4 Tablespoons olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red onion, finely chopped or 2 Tablespoons dried minced onion
10 sprigs Italian parsley, leaves only, chopped
1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes, drained
salt
black pepper

Soak beans (see Note). Drain and rinse under cold water. Combine beans, salt pork, and 12 cups of cold water in a soup pot. Heat over medium-high until it reaches a boil. Lower the heat to maintain a simmer, and cook for about 1 hour until beans are tender. Reserve 6 cups of the cooking liquid and drain the beans. If using dried onion, add it to the reserved water.

In the same pot, heat olive oil. Sauté garlic, red onion (if using), and parsley for about 1 minute. Add the tomatoes, a generous sprinkle of salt, black pepper and cook for 5 minutes. Add beans and reserved water. Once beans come to a boil, reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Cook for 30 minutes. Check seasoning; add more salt and pepper if needed. Drain beans, reserving cooking liquid. This next part-mashing the beans-is optional, but it will result in creamier beans. Take 1 cup of beans and mash with a potato masher. Add back the rest of the beans and as much cooking liquid as you like. If you add just a little, the beans will have very little sauce. If you add more, the mashed beans will thicken it and make a lovely sauce. If you add a lot, you’ll have soup! All are good choices.

Note: You have 2 ways to soak beans. You can soak the beans at least 4 hours or overnight – cover them with a few inches of cool water. Or if you want them in ¼ the time, use the fast soak method. Put the beans in a pot and cover them with a few inches of cool water. Bring to a boil, and boil rapidly for 3 minutes (2 minutes at sea level). Remove from the heat, cover, and let sit for 1-2 hours.

Adapted from Fagioli, The Bean Cuisine of Italy by Judith Barrett, Rodale, Inc., 2004.

Super Slow Mo Better Pork

My friend John (you can see news of his vineyard at Kiger Family Vineyard) is a very good cook (and baker and winemaker). He has introduced me to many great cooking techniques. He is definitely a technique person. The process is what it’s about. He made a pork shoulder for us on our last ski trip together. Heaven! I had to replicate it at home while my pork-loving daughter was back from college.

This process is long but requires very little work on your part. It results in delicious unctuous pork. The flavorings here are mine. Herbes de Provence has nothing to do with this kind of slow cooked pork, as far as I know. Pork takes to many flavors and these are some of the many that makes a pork shoulder even better. Herbes de Provence is one of those blends that you buy, usually in those too-large crockery jars for one particular recipe and then wonder what you are going to do with all of it. Well, this is a worthy place to use it, trust me.

You can read more about why this technique works on this tough cut of pork at Serious Eats. I’m going to give you the condensed version.

Super Slow Mo Better Pork
(serves an army)

8 lbs bone-in pork shoulder (also known as pork butt), preferably with skin on

Rub
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons herbes de Provence, crushed in your fingers
½ teaspoon black pepper

Seasonings
2 teaspoons herbes de Provence, crushed in your fingers
1 teaspoon kosher salt

The night before you will cook your pork shoulder, apply the rub. Combine the salt, herbes de Provence, and black pepper in a small bowl. Place the pork shoulder in a roasting pan. Sprinkle all sides with rub and rub it into the pork. Wrap tightly with plastic wrap and park in the fridge until the next morning.

About 10 hours before you plan to eat the pork, heat your oven to 250 °F. Remove the plastic wrap, return pork to the pan, skin side up, and stick in the oven. Cook until internal temperature reaches 200 °F (this is where a probe thermometer comes in handy) and the meat falls apart easily when prodded with a fork.

Remove the skin from the top, remove any meat, scrape off the fat. You can add it back to the pan to mix with the pork but there’s probably enough fat in the meat. There is no denying it tastes delicious! Set aside the skin. Using a couple of forks, rip apart the meat, which should fall to pieces easily and remove the bone.  Sprinkle the shredded meat with the seasonings.

Place the skin in a 500 °F oven for a couple of minutes to crisp it up. Chop and add back to the meat (or if you are evil, eat it all yourself).

Serve with most anything – rolls, potatoes, noodles. Cardboard. No, just kidding!

Friday Night Dinner: Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Grapes

I picked a lot of grapes this year (OK, my husband picked them because I was out of town). We finally beat the raccoons with an electric fence and all the grapes hanging were quite a bit – 18 pounds! They are small pink seedless grapes, a variety called Canadice from central New York. They are spicy, tart-sweet, and very tasty. But, you can only eat so many grapes. The expiration date was coming up on them. I had already turned them into raisins and a wine jelly. Found this recipe to use up the rest. This is easy, really easy!

One inch thick pork chops are just big though I know plenty of people who will happily eat a whole one. I try not to, but that’s a pretty typical serving. If you can resist devouring the whole thing, you can stretch this to serve more than 4; there is plenty of sauce. Of course, if you are part of my family, there will be war if you don’t get a bone with your chop. 🙂

Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Grapes
(serves 4-8)

4 bone-in 1″ thick pork chops, about 2 pounds total
salt and pepper
1 Tablespoon oil
2 pounds green or red seedless grapes
½ cup balsamic vinegar
2 – 3 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into a few pieces

Preheat the oven to 500°F.

Dry the chops and season with salt and pepper.

Heat the oil over medium-high heat in an ovenproof skillet large enough to hold all the chops. Brown the chops on both sides, about 2 minutes per side. Remove the chops to a plate and pour off the fat in the pan. Add the vinegar, and using a wooden spoon, scrape up any bits in the skillet. Let the vinegar reduce slightly. Add the grapes and stir. Put the chops and any juices back in the skillet. Mound some of the grapes on top of each chop so they are basted by the grape juice. Place in the hot oven and roast for 10 minutes. Check the temperature. If they get to 130°F, they are done and you don’t want to overcook them. If they aren’t cooked enough, return to the oven for another 5 minutes.

Remove the skillet from the oven and remove the chops to a heated dish. Using a slotted spoon, remove all the grapes and mound on top of the chops. Cover the chops with foil to keep warm. Return the skillet to the stove and cook over medium heat. Stir in the butter chunks and reduce the sauce until thick and glossy. Check the seasoning; add more salt if needed. Pour the sauce over the chops. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

Adapted from Nicole Routhier’s Fruit Cookbook by Nicole Routhier, Workman Publishing Company, 1996.

Roast Pork with Onions

Roast pork with onions, with a side of chard and bacon

This is a pretty simple and quite old recipe. It came from a book of cookery published in the 18th century called The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy. The recipe is “By a Lady” but it’s known that the book was written by Hannah Glasse, an Englishwoman. This cookbook was the most influential one in 1700’s in the English speaking world, including the American Colonies. It was published in 1747 (and reprinted many times) but there are still interesting recipes to be found in there. Like this one! I’ve updated it a bit to make use of modern technology: a thermometer to know when your pork is done. Don’t cook your pork roast too long; today’s lean pork dries out too quickly if you cook it much above 140°F.

To Dress a Pork Loin with Onions
(serves 6-8)

4 pound pork loin roast
salt and pepper
about 2 pounds of onions, sliced thinly
½ cup water
1 Tablespoon flour
1 Tablespoon white wine  or champagne vinegar
1 Tablespoon grainy mustard, like Dijon or Dusseldorf

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Pork roast before heading into the oven. My oven has a built-in temperature probe which is really handy!

Season the roast generously with salt and black pepper. Place the meat in a roasting dish and surround with sliced onions. Add water. Place in oven and roast for about 1 ¼ hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 125°F. Remove all the onions and any juices you can spoon out to a medium saucepan. Return the roast to the oven to finish cooking (about another 15 minutes) while you complete the onions. The pork should reach an internal temperature of 135° F. At this point, remove the roast from the oven, cover tightly with foil and let rest. The final temperature will be around 140°F.

To complete the onions, heat over low heat for about 15 minutes. The onions will turn a lovely golden-brown. Add the flour and vinegar, and stir to combine. Finally, add the mustard and cook for another 5 minutes. Check for seasoning; add salt if necessary.

Slice the pork roast and serve with the onions.

Pork Carnitas

Pork carnitas tacos are just one of my favorite things. The carnitas are very easy to make, though they do take a while to cook.

In theory, the pork shoulder should have enough fat to fry the pork shreds but in reality, American pork is still too lean to render enough fat (this is even true for the fatty pork shoulder). That’s why I add some oil – or even better, some lard – to fry the carnitas.

Serve your carnitas with hot corn tortillas, some diced pineapple, sliced red onions, diced avocado, and a green salsa.

Pork Carnitas
(makes 3-4 cups, 6 servings)

1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds boneless pork shoulder (also called pork butt), cut into large chunks
1 onion, studded with 6 cloves
3-4 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed
1 small dried whole red chile, such as a chile d’arbol or chipotle
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 cups water
2 tablespoons oil or lard

Place the meat, onion, garlic, chile, salt, and water in a large heavy skillet or dutch oven. Bring the water to a simmer. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for about 1 1/2 hours, until the meat is tender. Remove the cover and continue cooking over medium heat until the pork is very tender and almost all the liquid has cooked away.

Remove the pork and shred it with two forks. Discard the onion, garlic, and chile in the pot. Heat the oil and remaining liquid over medium-high heat. Return the pork shreds to the pot and fry until browned and crispy.

PDF of Pork Carnitas recipe