Braised Pork Shoulder with Creamy Polenta

As you probably know by now, Hubby and I are somewhat anti tradition.  For instance, at Christmastime, rather than getting a tree and decorations and exchanging gifts, we take a nice trip to the ocean.  The past two years we went to Virginia Beach and Atlantic Beach, but this year we were back in Utah, so we went to our very favorite place, San Diego.  Why is it our favorite?  Well, because of this,

And this,

And this,

Well, you get the idea. San Diego is beautiful, and at that time of year, it feels like paradise. In addition to enjoying the perfect weather and taking in the awesomeness that is the Pacific Ocean, there are a couple other things that are a must on our to do list. We always go whale watching, because seriously, why wouldn’t you?

And we always eat lots of fabulous food. Most mornings, we eat breakfast at the Broken Yolk Café. Their food is fantastic, and because oranges are in season that time of year, I never pass up the fresh squeezed juice. 

For dessert, Extraordinary Desserts is THE place. You’d think a place with a name like that would be your typical pretentious, overpriced, disappointing dessert café, but you would be wrong. Their Au Chocolat is simply to. die. for.

When it comes to dinner, however, we eat all over the place.  We’ll usually go into Little Italy a few times during our trip and wander into some random restaurant. This year we wandered into a little place called Davanti Enoteca.  Their menu items are served family style, so we got a couple of things to share.  One of them was the mascarpone polenta + ragù of the day.  The day we were there, it was made with pork shoulder, and it was one of the most amazing dishes I have ever eaten.  When we got home, I had to try to recreate it.  To be honest, I didn’t have high hopes of being able to match the fabulousness from that restaurant, but the end result blew me away.  Even Hubby said it was every bit as good as theirs, and maybe even better. Now you can make and enjoy this wonderful recipe, as well. 

Here’s what you’ll need: 

• 1.5 – 2 pounds pork shoulder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cups water
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 3 teaspoons ‘secret ingredient’
• 2 – 3 bay leaves 

The Whole Foods by me sells these pork shoulder steaks which work really well for this, but a whole pork shoulder will be fine, as well.  It’ll just be a little more work. 

Whichever you use, you’ll need to cut it into small pieces, maybe ¾ - 1 inch.  I removed some of the fat from mine, but you definitely want to leave a good bit of it on because it helps the pork to become nice and tender.

Place a pan (not a nonstick pan) over medium high heat. When it’s hot, add a tablespoon of oil and the diced pork.

Sprinkle over ½ teaspoon of salt.  Move the pork about with a spatula giving it a chance to brown on all sides. 

When the pork and the pan have a nice brown color on them, add the diced onion.

Give it about a minute to sweat and then pour in 2 cups of water.  It should help you to scrape the browned bits off the bottom of the pan.

Go ahead and turn off the heat.  Now it’s time for the secret ingredient, Better than Bouillon’s Au Jus Base.  Sure, you could probably get away with using one of the other flavors, but if you can get your hands on the Au Jus one, I highly recommend it.

Add 3 teaspoons to the pan.

Stir until it is dissolved, then sprinkle over the dried parsley. 

Stir that in and then slide in 2 or 3 bay leaves, making sure they’re completely submerged. 

On goes the lid, and into a 300° oven for 3 hours.  (I like to turn the temperature down to 275° for the last hour, but I’m not sure it’s strictly necessary.)  When it’s done, remove it from the oven, but leave the lid in place and just allow it to sit while you make the polenta. 

For the polenta you’ll need: 

• ½ cup Fine Grain Polenta
• 2 cups water
• ½ teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons cream cheese 

Add the salt to the water and bring it to a boil.  Keep some extra water handy.  Slowly sprinkle in the polenta while briskly whisking. (say that 10 times fast)

Turn the heat to low and continue to whisk.  If it gets too thick, add a little more water.  Continue stirring, allowing it to cook for about 5 minutes or so. 

Turn off the heat and add the butter and cream cheese.  Feel free to substitute mascarpone or goat cheese if you prefer.  Whisk them in until the polenta is nice and smooth and creamy. 

Spoon a nice puddle of it onto your dish.

Then, remember the pork? When you remove the lid, scrape any brown stuff from the lid and stir it in.  I know, that doesn’t really sound good, but trust me, it is serious flavor goodness that you don’t want to waste.

Remove the bay leaves, then spoon the pork, with all its luscious juices, over the waiting polenta.  Prepare to be blown away by what an amazing chef you are. 

What restaurant dish would you like to be able to replicate at home?

Your Peppermint Patties

Well, I'm sorry to say that Seeley lost her battle with math this week.  She hasn't had time to eat, let alone cook and blog about it.  Not to worry, though.  As long as she survives her exams, she'll be back next week.  In the meantime, I bring you Holiday Candy Making:  Mint Creams Edition. 

Here's what you'll need:

• 2 ½ cups sugar
• ½ cup half & half
• ½ cup water
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 2 Tablespoons brown rice syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 2 teaspoons peppermint

In a saucepan (2.5 quarts or larger) put your sugar, and pour over the half & half and water. 

Add the syrup.  Now, I understand that not everyone keeps brown rice syrup on hand, so if you only have corn syrup go ahead and use it instead. 

And last into the pan, the butter. 

Turn the heat to medium and stir everything together.  Continue to stir until the mixture comes to a full boil. 

Pop on a lid and leave it for 2 minutes.  See all that condensation?  That’s what washes all the sugar crystals off the sides of the pan, which is very important because one rogue crystal and can turn the whole batch into a grainy mess. 

While the lid is on, wash the spoon or get a clean one out.  Also, get a small dish of ice cold water, and if you haven’t yet done so, butter a glass pan and set it atop hot pads or a folded towel.  I doubt you can do all that in 2 minutes, so you probably ought to butter the pan before you start.

Go ahead and remove the lid.  When you begin to see larger bubbles forming, it’s time to start testing. 

Get a little of the mixture on a spoon and drop it into the cold water. 

You should be able to just scrape it together into a blob and pick it up. 

Once you’ve reached that stage, go ahead and pour it into your prepared pan.  Be very careful because this is extremely hot! (hence the hot pads under the pan)

You’ll have little bits stuck to the bottom of the pan, but don’t scrape them out.  Candy can be a bit temperamental, so just trust me. 

Now allow the candy mixture to cool for a bit.  You want to be able to hold your hand on the bottom of the pan.  It’ll be warm, but not uncomfortably so.  That should take 20 – 30 minutes.  While you’re waiting, go ahead and line an 8x8 pan with parchment.  When the candy has cooled enough, go ahead and add the flavorings over the top.

I should probably mention that if you’re using a different brand of peppermint flavoring, or if you’re using peppermint oil or extract, you might need to adjust the amount.  And now, the fun begins.  Using some sort of sturdy utensil, (I like a wooden spatula) start stirring. 

Ok, stirring might not be the right word.  It’s more just scraping and folding.  Basically just keep it moving.  At first it will be like a thick, syrupy, gooey mess. 

But don’t worry.  Just keep stirring.  There’s magic happening in there.  You’ll know it’s working as the mixture gradually becomes opaque. 

And eventually, this happens!  Goodbye sticky, gooey mess.  Hello peppermint cream!  Although peppermint fudge might be a better description, since that’s basically what you have at this point. 

Press it into your prepared pan, scraping every last morsel out of the stirring pan.  Get it even-ish across the top, but don’t worry about it being perfect or pretty. 

Now, cover it and hide it because it smells fabulous, but it needs to sit overnight.  The fudgifying reaction takes time to finish its… reactioning.  What?  I’m not a physicist (or is this in the chemist’s realm?  Those two things definitely overlap).  I just know there’s special sugar crystal stuff going on in there and it’s much happier to be worked with after being left to its own devices for several hours.  You can even see the difference in this picture.  The texture is much creamier. 

Using a pizza wheel, cut the block into 64 squares.  (Cut the square in half, the halves into quarters, the quarters into eighths, and repeat in the other direction.)

I’ll tell you now, it’s going to be a mess.  They’ll all be stuck together and different sizes, but don’t worry about it. 

Just pull them apart and place them onto a parchment lined sheet pan.  It’s best to flip them over as you do this and put the sticky side (what was the bottom) facing up.  Then pop them into the fridge for an hour. 

When they’re nice and cold, place each square into the palm of your hand. 

Squish in any corners or pokey bits, and roll it into a ball. 

You’re going to be rolling balls in your hands for awhile, so you might as well sit down while you’re doing it. 

After ball rolling, comes ball smashing.  I found it easiest to just use my thumb by pressing it into the middle, and then sort of tapping it around the edges. 

You want them to be about ¼ inch thick.  When they’re all flattened, place them back into the fridge for a bit because your hands will have warmed them up. 

When your patties are cold, they’re ready for dipping.  Place whatever kind of chocolate you like into a bowl.  I actually did 2 separate bowls, one for dark chocolate and one for white chocolate.  I love white chocolate and mint together. 

Whatever you’re using, melt it.  If you’re using the microwave, do it in 30 second intervals, stirring between each one. 

When it’s ready, go ahead and drop in a patty. 

Using a fork, flip it over, allow the excess chocolate to run off, and place it onto another parchment lined sheet pan.  Repeat 63 times, and voilá!  Peppermint patties galore!  I think mint chocolate stuff is always better cold, so once they’re set, just put them in an airtight container in the fridge. 

These are perfect for gifts, to have out for people when they come for a visit, or you can just eat them.  Hubby says they are the best mint creams he’s ever tasted.  Me being a bit of a chocoholic, we’ve been to lots of high end chocolate shops, so that’s quite a compliment.  Without patting myself on the back too much, I have to admit he’s right.  Not only are homemade chocolates better than what you can buy in any store, but as an added bonus, they’re also way cheaper.  I used organic, high quality ingredients, and two huge pans of chocolates cost me less than $10. 

What’s your favorite flavor of chocolate creams?