Pork and pear, love affair

It’s been a week of chilly rain but there won’t be too many more cool nights this Spring. I love the way a bubbling potroast warms my loft and fills it with aromas as rich as the meal itself.  Pears are plentiful at the moment so let’s make one last pork/fruit masterpiece before hot weather drives us to iced tea and salads.

This is a loin, the porkchops not yet cut apart, but a shoulder is less expensive and works just as well. Start some bacon in your heavy bottom pot while you peel and core the pears. They can be very ripe, even bruised a bit and they will work just fine.

Remove the crisp bacon, keep the fat on a high flame, pepper the pork roast well and sear it in the hot bacon fat. Keep turning it until it is brown and crisp on all sides.

Along with four or five pears you’ll need a big, cut up onion, some fresh sage leaves and a good sauerkraut. Save that bacon, too.

Is the roast seared on all sides? Good. Take it out with tongs so you don’t pierce it, and set it aside on a plate.

It’s time to soften the onions.

Add the onions and a good handful of fresh garlic over medium heat and “sweat” the vegetables in the remaining fat, stirring now and then until they release their moisture and you can scrape up all those tasty little bits on the bottom of the pot.

When the onions are soft and gently turning golden on the edges, return the roast and any juice it may have rendered, dump in the pears and add the bacon, too.

Sprinkle the sauerkraut over the whole thing and add the fresh sage. We’re ready to add some stock.

You do have stock in the freezer, don’t you? Almost any kind will do, this was chicken/vegetable. See it melting in the saucepan at the top? Add about a liter to your roast.

Now add about a liter of a good cranberry juice. I like the Langers because it’s sweetened with real sugar instead of corn syrup. That’s why Coke tastes so great in Europe, by the way. Euro food laws are more strict so Coke is sweetened in the EU with real cane sugar.

Top it up with more stock until it’s right to the edge, then cover and bubble slowly for hours. Add more liquid as it cooks down but do not add more cranberry, add stock so it doesn’t get any sweeter.

An hour before serving, throw in a big handful of dried apricots. They’ll get rich and plump and soft after drawing in that delicious liquid.

You can take the lid off for the last 30 minutes or so if you want to reduce the volume a bit and further concentrate the flavors. Pork and fruit just love each other.

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The soft, braised fruit takes on the flavors of the meat and sage, deliciously aromatic and so very fine. And you know what else I’m thinking, too.

But soon? The GRILL.