A Hungry Bear

Recently Food & Wine magazine had an interesting article that presented some classic Greek recipes in simpler, Americanized fashion. One of these was for a simple grilled pork tenderloin, served with pitas and tzatziki. But when it came time to cook this, we were in the middle of 3 straight days of rain - no way was I turning on the grill. So I set about searching for a braised version and found Kalofagas Greek food blog. His recipe for pork shanks was gorgeous, but a little too complicated ( it featured a pink peppercorn sauce). I took some of his suggestions for the herbs and wine for marinating and braising, and used a big pork shoulder I could shred for the pitas.

Grocery list: 3 pound bone-in pork shoulder or boston butt, 1/2 cup white wine, 2-3 sprigs fresh rosemary, 10 fresh sage leaves, 2 onions, olive oil; plus a batch of fresh pita bread and tzatziki sauce for serving.

At least 8 hours before you want to cook the pork, set up the marinade. (This reminded me of the lamb cacciatore I made from SPQR a few months ago.)

Start by mincing the garlic, rosemary and sage.

Mix the garlic and herbs with a couple tablespoons olive oil in a bowl large enough to accommodate the pork shoulder.

Add the pork to the bowl and flip it several times to coat it. Press the garlic and herbs into the meat on all sides. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or at least 8 hours.

Give yourself at least 2 hours prior to dinner, if not more, to prep the pork. The larger the cut of meat, the longer cooking time you will need. The good news is that you can make this in advance, and just reheat the pork. Remove the marinated pork from the fridge and allow it to come to room temperature, about 30 minutes.

Peel the onions, cut them in half, and cut each half into wedges.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a heavy dutch oven over medium high heat. Add the pork shoulder, and sear it 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove and allow to rest on a plate.

If the pan is mostly dry, you might want to add another tablespoon olive oil. If there’s still oil in the pan, just throw in the onion pieces. Cook, stirring to scrape up the brown bits of cooked herbs from the pork, until onions are softened, about 5-6 minutes. Add about 1/2 cup of white wine to the pan to un-stick some of those bits from the bottom of the pan.

Return the pork to the pan, so it sits on the onions. Stir up some of the juices over the top of the meat. Cover the pot with aluminum foil and roast in the oven for about 1.5 - 2 hours, or until the internal temperature of the meat is 160 degrees.

Move the pork back to a plate and allow it to cool enough to handle it. Heat the onions and braising liquid over medium-high heat for a few minutes, until the liquid reduces and thickens. Pull the pork off the bone with your hands, trim off any visible fat, and shred the meat with 2 forks into large chunks. Return the meat to the sauce and stir well to coat, then remove from heat.

Serve on a plate with a side of tzatziki and pitas, or folded into pita bread with the sauce on top.