Saturday, September 30, 2017

Peruvian Pork Stew with Chiles, Lime, and Apples


Ingredients:
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 4 pounds trimmed boneless pork shoulder or sirloin roast
  • 2 large yellow or Vidalia onions
  • 4 large apples
  • 3-5 ancho or other mild dried chiles
  • 3 bay leaves
  • Pinch of ground cloves
  • 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
  • 4 cups chicken stock
  • 1 teaspoon Redman's® Rea Salt, plus more to taste
  • McCormick's® Peppercorn Medley to taste
  • Steamed rice for serving
  • Chopped cilantro for garnish

Directions:

Zest one lime.  Using a reamer, juice limes until you have at least 1/4 cup and set aside.   Rinse and pat dry pork, cut into 2-inch pieces, and set aside.  Rough chop the onions and set aside.  Remove the stem and seeds from the peppers, straighten them out and cut into squares, and set aside.  Core the apples, cover with a towel, and set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a caste iron dutch oven and brown the pork on two sides, working in batches so as not to steam the meat.  Use medium heat, approximately a minute a half per side.  Set the meat aside.  

In the same pot, begin sautéing the onions on low heat.  Add the cloves and the bay leaves.  Quickly peal and rough chop and apples and add to the onions.  Cook until the onions are tender, approximately 10 minutes.

Add the pork, lime juice, lime zest, and stock and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat until so that it simmers.  Cook covered for 30 minutes.  Stir and continue cooking uncovered, until the meat is very tender and just about falling apart, at least an hour.  Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.  When satisfied, turn off the heat. 

Serve over steamed rice, garnished with cilantro.


Myrtle's Note:  I really liked this recipe, though I did make a few tweaks to it.  Most are in how I only used one pot to cook it and the order in which I did the prep so that I could do so and keep the apples from browning.  I didn't want to try and remove the meat to reduce the liquid, so I cooked it half the time uncovered.  And I added salt!  I was so surprised at how the apples disappeared into stew sauce.  Four of them!  The onions, which I normally try to disguise in any way I can, were so soft their texture didn't bother me.  And I enjoyed eating the bits of pepper.  Next time I make this, I plan to increase the peppers to five, which is the number that goes in another pork recipe I have.  I could taste the apples and the lime and the chiles, but I thought it could have used more.  I ended up using 1 1/2 teaspoons of salt and probably could have used a bit more.  I put in a shake or two of Ancho chili pepper and some of the peppercorn medley.  Next time, I will add a bit more.  I would really like to see what this tastes like with a layer of mild heat to it.  Also, since I am not a fan of rice, I plan on trying it with crusty bread.  However, I will say that the stew sauce was mighty, mighty tasty on the rice.


Yield:  8 servings

Source:  https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12192-peruvian-pork-stew-with-chiles-lime-and-apples?mcubz=1