« Under the Table | Main | Car Shopping »
February 06, 2004
Braise the Lard!
A few nights ago, I made a serious mistake. I pulled a bag of stewing pork out of the freezer instead of the flank steak that I had intended. One night passed and I cheesed out on dinner and boiled up some rice cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves (a culinary adventure in itself when they were made two weekends ago). Last night, Henry made dinner as I came home late. Being the third day that the meat had been sitting in the refrigerator, I really wanted to get rid of it before I had to throw it away.
The only problem was that I had originally bought the pork to make more of the rice cakes or congee, but now I was ill prepared to make either. What to do with the pork? I couldn't really just chop it up and stir fry it. It would have tasted like vinyl seating.
Sean to the rescue! My old DM from New York happened to be online. Now, he also happens to be an exhibition chef at the Marquis Marriott, so I asked him and he coached me through making a braise.
So, I made my first braise. Pork in beef broth and Merlot, with baby carrots, onion, and mustard greens. It was a little saltier and waterier than I would have liked, but it still tasted good. The pork came out wonderfully and crumbled in my mouth. With a little practice, this could be a very interesting addition to my repertoire.
Who knows, maybe I'll take a page out of Coop's book and try fusing some miso with the process.
Posted by KinCross at February 6, 2004 12:26 AM