praise for the braise

A braise does three things, particularly for the lazy cook.  It provides a nearly hands-off cooking method, lends tenderness to sometimes finicky large cuts of meat, and it makes its own sauce.  Jim loves pork, but pork sometimes frustrates me.  Either it is too fatty or not fatty enough, depending on the cut.  And it can become dry and flavorless, if it is overcooked.   So I was intrigued when I saw Debbie Mazar's husband Gabriella cooking a pork loin braised in milk the other day on the cooking channel.  A little research lead me to believe that they may have fudged the results a little on the show, because the traditional pork braised in milk results in an odd curdled sauce that I suspect is an acquired taste.  But I haven't had anything resembling a milk gravy in years, so I thought I would take a whirl at making my own version, hoping for a result similar to what I saw on the show--a tender sliced pork roast with a creamy, silky sauce.

My first departure was the cut of meat, but that was just the product of a poor selection of roasts at the grocery store, and no desire to tack a trip to another store onto my errands.  The store had one pork loin roast, and one pork butt roast.  The butt roast was a bit smaller, and looked better, so it won.  The result would be that the meat wouldn't be as pretty when sliced, and there would be more fat to contend with in the sauce.

the pork roast needs a heavy coating of salt and pepper, 

best added about an hour ahead of time

The braise starts with some oil to brown the roast, along with some aromatics.  In this case I used sage and rosemary that are still hanging around in the garden (very mild winter here so far) along with a few cloves of garlic, skins and all.  The sauce gets strained, so there's no need to get fussy with the herbs.

nothing could be simpler than tossing whole herbs in a pot

browning the pork roast is not necessary, but it does add

flavor and color

Once the pork was browned off, I added a cup of white wine, a couple cups of chicken stock, and the lid.  Then the pot went into a 275 degree oven to be neglected for the next two or three hours.  About 30 minutes before we wanted to eat, I quartered some baby dutch yellow potatoes (my current favorite for grilling and pan frying), some onion, sweet baby bell peppers, and a yellow squash.  I browned the potatoes a bit first, then just added in the rest of the veggies along with some salt and pepper.

 my mineral pan is starting to look like a real cook uses it--

the uglier it gets, the more non-stick it gets

I pulled the roast out of the oven, put it on a board to rest while the veggies cooked, and strained the braising liquid into a gravy separator, a ten dollar tool that is unsurpassed at getting excess fat out of pan drippings.  I think I've had mine for twenty years or more.  Once I got rid of the excess fat, I put the pan dripping back in the pot, and over high heat to reduce them a bit.  I made a slurry of a couple of teaspoons of flour and a cup or so of whole milk, cut the heat off under the reduced drippings, and added the slurry to the pot, stirring it and letting it simmer in the residual heat of the cast iron roaster.  The result was a delicious silky sauce for the roast.  If you want to cut the calories, just reduce the defatted drippings and call it a day.

a yummy dinner with the side benefit of tender pork left over 

for sandwiches