Slow cooked garlic onion pork is worth all the effort~~well, if you consider about 15 minutes of prep 'work' and then after that the oven does the 'work'. I love meats that can be pulled apart with a fork. Meats that bathe in juices of spices and flavors that infuse and literally tenderize the meat fibers. And, that's what the pineapples and tomato (paste) does for this pork~~natural tenderizers that create an almost 'melt' in your mouth texture.
There's just so much you can do with this pork~~stuffing pita pockets, making BBQ sandwiches and, yes, serving as an entree with sides. Be sure to pull out the whole garlic and scrape out the luscious garlic paste and stir it back into the broth/gravy~~a little work, but, again, worth it! Oh, yeah, this last picture with the olives, well, that's how I ate the leftovers the next day~~love my olives, and they were killer good on the pork!
Serves: 4
Preheat Oven to 375
What you need:
1 Tbl oil (canola)
1 Tbl butter
2 lb pork loin roast
3 cups beef broth (divided)
3 Tbl. Concentrated tomato paste
1 whole garlic clove, peel away as much of the skin wrapper as possible
2 tsp. sea salt
2 tsp. sweet paprika
2 tsp freshly grated ginger
12 pitted whole Dole dates
1 ½ cups thinly sliced sweet onions (half-moon shape)
1 cup Dole frozen pineapple chunks
1 bouquet of fresh Italian parsley, mint and fresh basil stems (about 3-4 stems of each), tied with cooking twine
Water as needed
What you do:
Put the oil and butter in a heavy pot over medium high heat, add the pork roast and sear/brown on all sides. Add 2 cups of beef broth, tomato paste, garlic clove, salt, paprika, and ginger and blend. Bring to a roaring boil for about 15 minutes.
Cover tightly and cook for one hour in a preheated 375 oven. Check several times to see if you need to add more broth (moisture will evaporate). Add the dates, onions, pineapple chunks and bouquet of fresh herbs and cook another hour; add the remaining broth and water if needed. Cook another hour then take a knife (or fork) and begin tearing the pork into chunks; it should be very tender.
Reduce heat to 200, add more water/broth if needed and just let the meat simmer another about 30 minutes. Remove and read to serve. Keep warm until ready to serve.
©alice d'antoni phillips www.allyskitchen.com
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