November 15, 2012 Dinner – Pork Confit with sautéed Black Beans and Rice Medley

November 15, 2012 Dinner – Pork Confit with sautéed Black Beans and Rice Medley

I talked to Suzette last night and she said she wanted to eat the pork confit that we had made on Monday to see if it was still good because we had used a piece of pork that sat in its cryovac bag in the fridge for two weeks.  Lucky us. 

I had the idea of making a Spanish/Caribbean adaptation of the Italian dish that is served at the Greenhouse Bistro and Bakery.  At the Greenhouse Bistro the pork is served on white cannellini beans.  My idea was to serve the pork with black beans and rice, sort of a fancier Spanish adaptation of the Cajun red beans and rice.

Here is the recipe for the pork confit (from my September 2, 2012 blog):

On Monday morning I started the Pork Confit by crushing in a mortar 2 Tbsp. coarse sea salt, 1 Tbsp. Black pepper, two leaves of bay laurel, and five sprigs of fresh thyme.  I then put the spice mixture in a gallon Ziploc freezer bag and added three pounds of boneless pork cubed in 1 ½ inch cubes and tossed the pork with the herbs and let it sit in the fridge for 6 to 7 hours.

Then Suzette and I transferred the pork and spice combination  to two covered enamel casseroles and added enough olive oil to the casserole to cover the meat, about 1 ½ cups to 2 cups per casserole and one half head of peeled cloves of garlic into each.  Then we brought the casseroles to a boil and then put them into a 225˚ oven and cooked them for 2 ½ hours.   Then we removed the casseroles from the oven and allowed them to cool and then combined the two into one and put it in the fridge overnight.  

END OF RECIPE

 So at around 5:00 p.m. when Suzette called and said she was on her way home, I asked how she wanted the beans prepared and she said with celery and onions and a pimiento.  So I minced one stalk of celery, 2 Tbsp. parsley, with one medium pimiento and one large shallot we had bought at the last Farmer’s Market. 

Then I started 4 ½ cups of water and added a large bay leaf and 1 tsp. of dehydrated chicken stock and brought the water to a boil.  When the water was at a boil, I added 1 cup of wild rice to the water and lowered the heat to a simmer.  After 45 minutes I added a cup of basmati rice to the water and simmered for an additional 30 minutes. 

Suzette arrived at 5:45 p.m. and after a drink, at around 6:00 p.m. she took out two large skillets, one for the beans and the other for the pork.  She put a bit of olive oil in the bean skillet and sautéed the minced vegetables for a few minutes and then added the beans.  After a few more minutes I added 2 Tbsp. of Amontillado sherry to the beans to give the beans a little more Spanish flavor.  Suzette then put some of the pork in the other skillet with its olive oil and spice mixture and sautéed it over low heat to heat it.  After about ten more minutes when the rice was ready, dinner was ready.  I ran to the basement for a bottle of Benton Hill 2010 Rosé and Suzette served dinner by putting a pile of pork on one side of the plate and rice on the other side of the plate with a scoop of beans on the rice.   The arrangement of foods was lovely and delicious, see picture.  

The wine was dark and cool and not sweet at all.  More somber and dark, like the cool wet Dundee Hills of Oregon’s Willamette Valley, just north of Corvallis.  Not at all like the fruitier complexity of rosés grown in California’s Sonoma and Anderson Valleys.  But the Benton Hill was a very good complement to the assertive flavors of the pork and black beans and rice because it unified their flavors with a texture of smoky red wine flavor.  Everyone liked the dish.  Simple and elegant at the same time.

We liked the rosé so well that I decided to go to the fridge in the garage and fetch the last pumpkin parfait made for us by Rose of Rose’s Table Cafe in Mesa Del Sol, with its pumpkin allspice cookies, submerged in layers of pumpkin mousse and whipped cream to try with the rosé.

After dinner I made chocolate chip cookies with Willy, so a lot of wild food and I am up at 2:30 a.m. to prove it. But the pork confit was not spoiled and that is the trick with pork confit.  Although I do not understand all the chemistry, the cooking at low temperature covered with spices and olive oil seems to preserve the meat and prevent spoilage.   The confit method cooking seems to me to be an older version of and amazingly similar to the new wildly popular sous bise method of cooking ingredients to temperature sealed in a plastic bag in a water bath boiling.  

Bon Appètit