Farewell winter!
The musings of Candide about “The best of possible worlds” and “The
worst of possible worlds” certainly fit our weather pattern these last
couple of weeks. There was the Valentine’s day blizzard, then a few spring like
days coaxing intrepid clammers out in the estuary, followed immediately with
bone chilling days and nights. March has come, but winter seems to refuse it’s
hold.
An impromptu dinner with friends therefore still needed to focus on cold
weather fare. With short advance planning and a quick trip to the store, an
afternoon with relatively little hands-on time yielded a hearty and satisfying
dinner. The centerpiece of which was a pork-butt roast with carmelized onion
gravy. With roasted vegetables, red cabbage and baby kale salad we tried to say
farewell to winter and anticipate the coming spring.
Pork roast with carmelized onions
Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Slice 2 large onions and spread in the middle of a
13x9 inch metal roasting pan. Rub salt on all sides of a 4 – 4 ½ lb. butt pork
roast and place on top of the onions. Thinly slice 1 large garlic clove and
insert in small slits in the fatty part of the roast. Generously pepper the top
of the roast and place in the preheated oven. After 10 minutes, turn oven heat
to 350 degrees and continue to roast for 2 ½ hours. Remove pan from oven.
Set the meat aside to keep warm and place the pan with onions and drippings on
a burner on the stove set on low heat to prepare the gravy.
Carmelized onion gravy
Sprinkle and blend ¼ cup flour with the drippings and blackened onions in
the bottom of the pan, then add ½ cup water and scrape up the brown bits and
onion-flour mix to make a smooth paste. While stirring add 1 cup additional
water and 2 Tblsp. balsamic vinegar and bring to simmer. Correct seasoning and
any additional water to the desired consistency of the gravy. Serve hot on
slices of the roast pork.
Oven roasted vegetables
If you are fortunate to have 2 ovens, roast the vegetables near the end of the
meat cooking time. If not, roast them before the pork roast, keep covered on
the pan while the meat cooks and then reheat at 350 degrees for 10
minutes while making the gravy.
Peel 4 medium potatoes, 4 carrots and 2 parsnips and cut up in 1 inch pieces.
In a small bowl mix together ¼ cup olive oil, 2 Tblsp. balsamic vinegar, 1 tsp.
thyme leaves and 1 large minced garlic clove. Toss the cut up vegetables in
batches in the oil mixture and spread in a shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with 1
tsp. coarse salt. Roast in a 375 degree oven for 30-40 minutes until tender and
browned.
Wine braised red cabbage
Red cabbage with it’s texture and color is a wonderful winter vegetable, but
cooked in water it turns an unappetizing bleached purple color. However, cooked
in wine with some vinegar, the rich red color retains it’s appetizing hue.
Thinly slice ½ of large red onion and about ¾ lb red cabbage (6 cups). In a
large heavy skillet heat 2 Tblsp. vegetable oil and cook the cabbage and onions
for 10 minutes, while stirring on moderately high heat. Stir in ½ cup red wine,
½ cup balsamic vinegar, 1 Tblsp. sugar, 1 tsp. salt, ¼ tsp. ground cloves, 1
chopped apple and pepper to taste. Continue to simmer with occasional
stirring for about 15 minutes until all the liquid is absorbed. Can be
made ahead and reheated.
Our nod to the coming spring was in the form of baby kale salad with sliced
water chestnuts and dried cranberries dressed with a lemony vinaigrette. Desert
was easily assembled from last summers canned-spiced-peaches, a scoop of ice
cream topped with a couple of preserved cherries.
Our relaxed after dinner conversation was a glad farewell to winter and my
husband’s noodling of “Danny Boy” on the home organ had us not only
looking forward to St. Patrick’s day but also the coming spring.
(I. Winicov Harrington lives in Waldoboro and is the
author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day: the
Smart-Frugal Food Plan”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment