Braised Pork with Cabbage and Apples

Braised Pork with Cabbage and Apples

No French dish is allowed to be this simple. It's against the nature of their cuisine. To confuse simple with boring is common in this flashy tech-driven time. Foodie hipsters flock to the eateries that are bringing the “new” and the “never before” as the latest trends. To keep patrons, eateries tend to rely on wow-factor, from cocktails to ambiance. The food that makes it to the home kitchen to be served to friends follows the same rules… impress… impress big!

Warning: to make a meal memorable it should not be outside of the comfort zone of the person cooking it. In this case, a sturdy pot with a lid is the only technology you need. This pork could make anyone look like a pro in the kitchen.

Take a piece of pork shoulder 3 or more pounds, season liberally with good salt, black pepper, and granulated garlic, let sit for one half hour. In a cast iron or enameled crock that is as French as possible, sear all the sides of the pork in some olive oil. Pour half a cup to a cup French wine, as much as you are able to give up, but it does not take much, and make sure this wine is very drinkable. Put a bay leaf in the pot, place the lid on and put in a 275 degree oven.  3 or 4 hours later, check your roast. Once it is fork tender, put finely sliced red cabbage (1 head) and apples (2 medium) around the roast and cook for about 45 minutes. The presentation of the dish works well in a family-style meal with the pork in the middle of a bed of cabbage and apples.

Try this dish. It is amazing! Flavors are so complex and rich it is almost impossible to stop eating. Once this braised dish makes it into the arsenal, gauging how much shoulder is needed to assure leftovers the next day will be the dilemma.