Friday, June 18, 2010

Pork Stew with Hard Cider, Pearl Onions, and Potatoes


The February 2010 issue of Bon Appétit offers a decidedly wintry concoction called Pork Stew with Hard Cider, Pearl Onions, and Potatoes. However, I loves me some stew any time of year, and given that my husband is a die hard meat-n-taters man, I figured this would be a good choice. It was, but I'd make some changes for next time.

We thought the finished product was a little too sweet, probably due to the inclusion of a chopped Granny Smith apple. I'll leave that out next time. I'll also leave out the thickener, a paste of butter and flour whisked into the finished stew. It wasn't necessary.

A delectable mix of root veggies was used. The purple onions came out of my vegetable garden. For some reason, they all came out really small, but since this recipe calls for pearl onions, they were the perfect size!


Chopped bacon is cooked and removed to be added back later. I love bacon!


Cubes of boneless pork shoulder, also called Boston butt, are seasoned with salt and pepper before being browned in the bacon fat.


The cider I used was a kind I drink regularly, Hornsby's Hard Cider Amber Draft. I'm not a beer drinker, but this stuff tastes deliciously apple-y. I halved the recipe, so part of the cider was for cooking and part of it was for drinking. My kinda dinnertime!


This was the first time I've ever cooked parsnips, which were sautéed with chopped shallots.


The photo of the finished stew keeps winding up funky on the post's layout, so I'll try to add it again later.


1 comment:

Hardcore Doug said...

You know I'm gonna be coming here to get some cooking ideas, cuz they're closing down the dining facility here at the dorms in October. I know! UNPOSSIBLE!