Around My French Table (54 page)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Put a large skillet, preferably nonstick, over high heat and add the oil. When it's hot, toss in some of the pork—don't crowd the pan—and cook, stirring, until the pieces are golden on all sides. As the pieces are done, lift them out of the pot and place in a Dutch oven or other oven-going stew pot; season lightly with salt and pepper. Continue to brown the remainder of the pork.

Put the Dutch oven over medium heat and add the spices, lemon zest, lemongrass, and 1 teaspoon salt. Stir everything around until the spices are toasty—you'll smell them—and then stir in the coconut milk and water. Bring to a boil, cover the pot well, and slide it into the oven.

Allow the stew to braise undisturbed for 30 to 40 minutes, or until the pork is tender and cooked through, (if you plan to make the dish ahead, cook the pork for 15 to 20 minutes.)

While the stew is in the oven, cook the vegetables, if you're using them: Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and add the potatoes, carrots, onions, and celery root. Keep an eye on the pot, and remove the vegetables with a slotted spoon as they're tender. Transfer the vegetables to a bowl and set aside until the pork is cooked.

When the pork is done, put the Dutch oven over medium heat, add the vegetables, if you've got them, and bring the liquid to a boil. Reduce the heat to a gentle simmer and simmer just until the vegetables are heated through. If you think the sauce needs it, you can add a little more stirred coconut milk to the pot—it will heighten the braise's coconut flavor and thin the sauce (which is not particularly thick). Taste for salt and pepper, add a teaspoon of honey, if you'd like, and serve.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
Because the sauce is so good and so plentiful, you'll want something to capture it—bread is an option, of course, but boiled rice or egg noodles are naturals as well.

STORING
Like all stews, this one is very good the next day. If you want to make it ahead, cook the pork for a slightly shorter time, so that you don't overcook it when you reheat it. If you've got leftovers, remove the pork, reheat the sauce, and when it's hot, add the pork and simmer just long enough to warm it through.

A
LTHOUGH THIS ROAST IS FESTIVE ENOUGH
to be served at a party, it's quick and easy enough to be supper on a busy weeknight. The stuffing is chard sauteed with onions and garlic and mixed with raisins—pork and dried fruits are made for each other. And, rather than the stuffing being worked precisely (and fussily) into the center of the roast, the loin is butterflied, the filling is spooned on, and the whole is tied up with kitchen string, making it more rustic but no less appealing than the precisely stuffed roasts displayed in every French butcher shop. I love the way this roast looks, particularly when the filling is made with bright-colored red or rainbow chard. And it's great for the holidays when, in very non-Gallic style, you can replace the raisins with dried cranberries and serve the pork with a chunky cranberry sauce.

Cut ½ inch or so off the bottoms of the stalks of chard, then cut the leaves away from the ribs and thinly slice the ribs and stalks. Shred the leaves by rolling them up like a cigar and slicing them crosswise (or chop the leaves).

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, season with a little salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, until the onion is almost softened, about 3 minutes. Toss in half of the chard and stir it around; when it wilts enough to free up some space in the skillet, add the rest of it. Continue to cook and stir until the chard is tender, a total of about 5 minutes. Scrape the mixture into a bowl, stir in the raisins and a good pinch of red pepper flakes, and season with salt and pepper.

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Pound the peppercorns and coriander in a mortar and pestle just until they crack (don't pulverize them), or put them between sheets of wax paper and bash them with the bottom of a skillet or the heel or back of a chef's knife.

Put the pork loin fat side up on a cutting board. Using a long sharp knife, cut it in half along one side without cutting all the way through; leave about ¼ inch intact. Open the roast like a book, and spoon the stuffing onto it. Tie the roast at intervals with kitchen twine, tucking in the stuffing that pops out as you go, or close the flap with toothpicks or skewers. Rub the pork with the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, season with salt, and pat the crushed peppercorns and coriander over it. Settle the loin fat side up in a roasting pan or other pan that's just big enough to hold it comfortably—I use a 9-inch cast-iron skillet.

Roast undisturbed until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thick part of the loin—not into the stuffing—registers 140 degrees F. Because pork is so variable, you should start checking the temperature after 25 minutes, but it's likely the roast will need about 40 minutes in the oven. Pull the pan from the oven, cover the roast lightly with a foil tent, and let it rest in a warm place for 15 minutes, during which time the roast will continue to cook and the juices will settle. The roast will still be pinkish at the center (it might also be red, if you've used red chard, but that's something else); if that's not the way you like your pork, roast it a bit longer before resting it.

Slice the roast with a careful sawing motion, so that the stuffing remains encased by the meat.

MAKES 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
The roast doesn't make its own sauce, and it really doesn't need a sauce per se, but it's very good with mustard—grainy or honey mustard, or a mixture of Dijon mustard and crème fraîche.

STORING
If you've got some roast left over, let it cool, wrap it well, and keep it refrigerated for up to 3 days. Chilled, it makes great sandwiches.

M
Y FRIEND ALEC LOBRANO IS THE MAN
thousands turn to when they want advice on where to eat in Paris. The author of
Hungry for Paris
and a longtime contributor to
Gourmet
magazine, he's been the go-to guy on the Paris scene for more than twenty-five years. Yet while Alec can detect and describe the nuances of French cuisine from classic to nouvelle, when he's cooking at home, he's apt to serve his French friends something from his earlier life in America, often this sweet-and-sharp pork loin, a dish with roots in the Dominican Republic.

Alec tells a wonderful story of moving to New York's Upper West Side in 1977, where he shared an apartment with a friend who was as broke as he was, and discovering a neighborhood Dominican bar where the air-conditioning was reliable, the beer cheap, and the welcome—once the crowd got used to the gringos—warm, so warm that when Dominican Independence Day rolled around, Alec found himself invited to celebrate with the bar's owner. It was there that he had aversion of this dish: pork and mangoes in a wine and vinegar sauce with soy and honey. It must have been love at first taste, because he has carried the memory and the recipe with him ever since, first to London and then to Paris, where it seems perfectly at home.

Alec told me that when he re-created this roast, he added the lychees, which, as he says, "have the oddball fun of standing in for the fat that's missing from a pork loin. People always think that the lychees are fat and push them to one side, so I love revealing the trompe l'oeil and insisting they try at least one."

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Pat the roast dry with paper towels. Place a Dutch oven or other heavy oven-going casserole over medium-high heat and pour in 1 tablespoon of the oil. When it's hot, put the pork fat side down in the pot and cook for a couple of minutes, until the fat is browned, then turn it over and brown the other side. Transfer the roast to a plate, season with salt and pepper, and discard the oil.

Return the pot to the stove, this time over low heat, and add the remaining tablespoon of oil. When it's warm, toss in the onion and garlic, season with salt and pepper, and cook, stirring, for about 3 minutes, or until the onion is translucent. Turn up the heat and pour in the vinegar—stand back, the scent of hot vinegar is very strong. When the vinegar has almost evaporated, a matter of a minute or two, pour in the wine. Let the wine bubble for 30 seconds or so, then add the soy, lime juice, and honey. Bring to a boil, stir in the piment d'Espelette or chili powder, add the bay leaf, thyme, mango, and lychees, and give the pot another minute at the boil. Add the roast fat side up, baste with the sauce, cover the casserole, and slide it into the oven.

Allow the roast to braise gently for 30 minutes, then check its temperature: you're looking for it to measure 140 degrees F at its center on an instant-read thermometer. The roast is likely to need a total of 40 to 50 minutes in the oven, but it's important to check early, since pork varies. Pull the pot from the oven, transfer the roast to a cutting board, cover it lightly with a foil tent, and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes, during which time it will continue to cook (its temperature will probably rise another 5 degrees or so).

While the roast is resting, taste the sauce. If you'd like to concentrate the flavors even more, boil it for a couple of minutes. Don't forget to check for salt and pepper.

Slice the roast and serve with the sauce.

MAKES 4 TO 6 SERVINGS

SERVING
Alec serves his pork with sticky rice, but I like it as much with Cardamom Rice Pilaf (
[>]
)—the citrusy flavor of the cardamom is really nice with the fruit in the sauce—or Orange Rice Pilaf (see Another Bonne Idée,
[>]
).

STORING
Leftovers can be covered and refrigerated overnight, then reheated very gently the following day, but it's likely that the pork will be a tad overcooked. You can use the pork chilled in salads or let it come to room temperature and make open-faced sandwiches. Do that, and you should reheat the sauce and spoon it over the sandwiches. Speaking of the sauce, it's great over pasta.