(post, Murielle Helgeson)
Menu du soir: Braised pork in honeyed milk Roasted potatoes and turnips Steamed broccoli My husband was laid off a couple of months ago. As I am only working part time, it means that our budget is pretty limited. But we love food and the situation would be even more depressing if we could not enjoy nice meals anymore. I've always been pretty cautious about money. So I am not completely changing my habits about grocery shopping. I must admit unfortunately that I've been buying fewer organic products: right now I choose the 2.99 Trader Joes regular gallon of milk over the 5.49 organic one. For grocery shopping, I try to follow a few practical rules: I want it to last about a week; I don't want to go in more that 2 stores and I try to spend between 100 and 140 dollars. So back to my menu: this week, I bought this big piece of pork, pork butt to be precise. Even if I translated recipes from english into french for allrecipes website, I am still not completely familiar with meat names. OK for pork butt, I don't need a picture. But in french, I always have an immediate association with one of those old-fashioned french recipes, like "jarret de porc aux lentilles". Anyway, when I decided to cook it, I realized that a 5 pounds of fatty pork was maybe not a great idea. Yes, we need lefovers, as there are more of us eating lunch at home these days. Yes, 5 dollars is a good price. But only if the result gives us satisfaction. So I looked quickly at my cooking books and between Marcella's "arrosto di maiale al latte" and Tyler Florence's "veal braised in milk and honey", I made up my own braised pork butt and it was delicious, melt in the mouth and more! I had to stop my son after a second helping, advicing him that his stomach would not take a third one. 1 piece of pork butt (4-5 pounds) About 1/2 gallon of milk 2 tbsp of honey 1 carrot 4 gloves of garlic, pealed a few sage leaves a couple of rosemary sprigs salt and pepper First, brown the pork on all sides in a large heavy pot. Then pour the milk, the honey, salt and pepper. Add the carrot, garlic gloves, rosemary and sage. Cover and cook at low temperature (300/350F) in your oven, for about 3 hours. You can reduce the cooking broth a little bit and use it as a sauce. It was really good with roasted potatoes and turnips. Next time, I might try it with baked apples.