Big Ol' Butt

Man do I love pork when it's done right. But that's the trick, innit? Doing it right. I was quite intent on finding an exemplary pork roast recipe, so when I saw this recipe by food scientist Shirley Corriher, I knew I was in for a good dinner. Of course living in the sticks as I do makes it difficult to find specific things sometimes. Like, I went to Walmart, no pork butt, and no butcher counter at which to inquire. Went to Kroger, no pork butt, also no meat counter, but a guy in a white coat who told me the only pork butts they had were these gigantic 15 pound monstrosities. Finally broke down and went to the expensive store, and they not only had a meat counter, but pork butts in normal-sized packages. If you talked to me that day, you know all I did was complain about the unavailability of pork butt. Anyway, I bought at 6 lb. butt and cut off a couple of pounds before cooking. Sorry if this is too talky... I'm home alone tonight and on my second glass of wine!

Piece o' Heaven Pork Butt
4 lb. pork butt (trim as much fat as possible)
1/3 c. Worcestershire sauce
2/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. apple juice
1/2 t. salt
a bit of pepper

Put an oven rack just below center and preheat oven to 400. Place roast in a roasting pan that is just a smidge bigger than the meat. Spoon Worchestershire sauce over all sides of the roast, then use a spoon to press brown sugar into all sides of the roast. Pour apple juice into bottom of roasting pan, making sure not to pour the juice on the meat. Cover pan, and put into oven, immediately reduce heat to 200 degrees and don't open the oven for 5 hours. At 5 hours, take roast out and if it easily pulls apart it's done. If not, put it in another 30 minutes. Check again. Repeat this until it easily pulls apart (my roast was ready at he 5 hour mark). Remove the meat to a large bowl, toss bone, then add salt and pepper to pan juices. Mix up and pour over meat. Yummy!!


Garlic Spinach
2 10 oz. bags of spinach (or 20 oz. loose leaf spinach)
a bit of cooking oil
8 cloves garlic, chopped
1 1/2 t. salt
3/4 t. pepper
1 T. butter
lemon

Clean and dry Spinach (it's ok if there's a bit of water still on spinach). In a large, deep pot, coat bottom with extra virgin olive oil (it has a high smoke point) and saute garlic for a couple of minutes on medium. Add all the spinach as well as the salt and pepper, mix around, then cover for a couple of minutes so the spinach can steam. Uncover, stir around, turn heat to high and stir for about a minute, until it's all wilted. Lift the spinach and garlic out with a slotted spoon into a bowl and pour any accumulated water out of the bowl. Add the butter and stir around until it's melted, then squeeze a bit of lemon juice over the spinach. Serve immediately.


Also prepared polenta that night, about which I'm not blogging. It was ok, but I think the next time I make it I'll do better. It was a bit over-cooked, I think... not creamy enough. It was pretty good, though, and quite pretty, especially next to that vibrant spinach. It's basically cornmeal mixed with water and/or milk with a bit of cheese or herbs or whatever you want.

That pork was so tender and flavorful and had a crispy crust-- yum! And it made the best hash ever, for real. The next time I make that pork roast maybe I'll use it all for hash, that's how good the hash was. Hash recipe is in the blog entry "Christmas Take One." I cannot stress enough how good this is in hash.