porklovers

After many promises to Mom, I'm posting a meal I made last week. This may not be for the faint of artery but it was increadible tasty and it took five days to prepare. For those of you still living off of greens you may want to gloss over the graphic images.

The title of this meal is:

Grilled pork confit with braised rice soubise and roasted figs.
It is from Suzanne Goin's new cookbook of Lucques and A.O.C.
fame.

What makes this dish special is the process of 'confiting', of which I wasn't very familiar. It was developed by peasants
in the middle ages of France who cooked and stored their food in fat as a way of preserving meat. You can do it with other
foods as well.
I started with a 3 lb boneless pork shoulder which I 'brined' for 2 days. A brine is a salt, sugar and herb concoction which
one dilutes in water and then keeps ice cold with the meat soaking in the water. A brine tenderizes the meat and allows for the salts and sugars to be obsorbed into the tissue of the meat thereby preserving flavor. This brine had crushed juniper berries, fennel, bay leaves, and alspice berries added to the mix. After 2 days I pulled the shoulder out and let it sit till it reached room temperature. At the same time I heated up two qts. of rendered duck fat in a cast iron dutch oven and brought it to a liquid state. after carefully lowering the pork into the fat, I slow cooked it at 250F for six hours. This was tough to schedule, it actually had to be pulled from the oven at 4am. after the pork cools in the fat for an hour or so and then it is refrigerated overnight. The left over fat is stained and then saved for the next time.
The following day, the day of the meal. We made the braised rice soubise which is like an onion rissoto except it is mostly
onion cooked in butter with a little bit of Arborio rice added along with Gruyere cheese and cream. Also added are
roast figs(not in the picture) which are seasoned with tyme and a pinch of salt and pepper with a sprinkel of olive oil.

After the soubise is finished the very cold pork is sliced against the grain into 1/2" wide slices and seared in a very hot
cast iron skillet with a little pork fat. after browning, the pork is placed on a bed of dandelion greens and served with the
figs on top. Our friend Stephen came over with his friend Sarah, and helped us eat.

Lily licked her fingers and smiled. It was a good night.