Braised Pork Wild Boar Style Food

PAN-ROASTED PORK TENDERLOIN WILD BOAR-STYLE WITH SHIITAKE MUSHROOMS

Steps:

• In a deep rectangular or oval dish that can contain the meat and all the other ingredients except for the mushrooms, combine the pork tenderloin, 3 tablespoons of olive oil, onion, garlic, bay leaves, celery, rosemary, and red wine. Turn the meat over several times to coat it well, then cover the dish with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Take it out occasionally whenever convenient to turn the pork over, basting it with its marinade.
• The following day, take the meat out of the refrigerator at least 1 hour before proceeding with the preparation of the dish. Turn it over and baste it when you take it out of the refrigerator, and once every half hour thereafter.
• Detach the mushroom caps from the stems, discarding the stems. Wash the caps quickly in running cold water without letting them soak. Pat them dry gently but thoroughly with a cloth towel, and cut them into thin slices.
• Lift the tenderloin out of the deep dish, pick out any bits of the vegetables from the marinade that may be sticking to it, and pat the meat dry with kitchen towels.
• In a skillet that can accommodate the two pieces of pork without overlapping, put in the remaining tablespoon of olive oil, and turn the heat to high. When the oil is hot enough to sizzle when you put in the meat, slip in both pieces. Turn the meat over to brown it evenly all around, then transfer it to a platter.
• Pour all the marinade from the deep dish into the skillet, turn the heat down to low, and cover the pan. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the vegetables are very soft or almost dissolved.
• While the marinade is cooking, put 1 tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet, turn the heat to medium, and add the sliced shiitake caps with some salt. Cook, turning the mushrooms over occasionally, until the liquid they shed evaporates completely and they have become very tender.
• When the vegetables of the marinade are very soft, add the cooked shiitake mushrooms, cooking them together for about a minute or two. Add both pieces of pork, sprinkling them with salt and several grindings of black pepper, and raise the heat to high. Cook the meat for 10 minutes on each side.
• Transfer the meat onto a cutting board, cut into slices 1/3-inch thick, and place slices on a very warm serving platter. Remove the bay leaves from the marinade -- and the garlic cloves, if you can find them -- then cover the meat with the cooked marinade and mushrooms and serve at once.
• Ahead-of-time note: When the overnight marinating of the meat is complete, it would be desirable to proceed at once through all the succeeding steps, but if you wish you can stop a few hours in advance right after the shiitake mushrooms and cooked-down marinade have been combined. Cook the meat, however, only when ready to serve, because it may dry out and become stringy if reheated.

BRAISED PORK (WILD BOAR STYLE)

Steps:

• In a spice grinder, combine juniper berries, cloves and peppercorns (mixture should be coarse.) In a small bowl combine spices and 2 tsp sea salt. Rub mixture into pork pieces. Place in large zip top bag and store in the refrigerator for three days.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
• Heat oil in heavy dutch oven (I use my 7 1/4 qt Le Creuset.) Dry pork pieces with paper towel and add to pot in batches. Brown pork pieces on all sides and remove to holding plate; repeat until all pork has been browned.
• Add onions, 3 cloves garlic, red pepper and 1/2 Tbl sea salt to pot, being careful not to brown the onion or garlic. Add one bottle of wine and scrape bits from bottom of pot. Add tomato puree and simmer. Add pork pieces and enough of second bottle of wine to cover pork (reserve one cup.) Heat to simmer again and then move into preheated oven.
• Braise pork in oven until meat is extremely tender, approx 3-4 hours. Move pot back to stove top.
• With slotted spoon, remove pork pieces to holding plate. Add one cup wine to pot and bring to simmer. Add 2 cloves garlic, vinegar and rosemary. Return pork to pot and combine. Cover and simmer for 5-10 minutes. Turn off heat and allow to rest for few minutes.
• Serve over large cooked noodles or your favorite pasta.

TUSCAN STYLE BRAISED PORK

Steps:

• Cut roast into 2" chunks, removing excess fat.
• Process juniper berries, cloves, peppercorns, dried garlic and sea salt in spice grinder until coarse mixture results.
• Put meat into large plastic container and rub generously with several tablespoons of spice mixture. (Reserve remaining spices.) Add gin and olive oil and thoroughly mix together. Seal container and refrigerate for at least 3-4 hours. Turn container a few times during marination process. You can marinate for up to three days if you can wait that long!
• Preheat oven to 325 deg F. Brown meat pieces in batches on stove top over medium high heat in a large oven safe covered pot or dutch oven. Place browned meat back into pot and add chicken broth, tomato sauce, red wine vinegar and enough water to cover meat.
• Cover and transfer pot to oven. Braise meat for 3-4 hours or until meat is very tender. Taste sauce and season with reserved spices if desired. Serve over pasta or mashed potatoes.

WILD BOAR IN GROUNDNUT SAUCE (OR PORK)

Steps:

• Heat a few spoonfulls of oil in a large pot. Add the meat and fry it until it is browned but not done. Reduce heat. Add water, salt, and pepper and simmer for about half an hour.
• Add the tomatoes and onions and contine to simmer until the meat is done and becoming tender.
• Remove some of the liquid and mix it with the peanut butter to make a smooth sauce. Add this to the meat-tomato-onion mixture.
• Continue to simmer on a very low heat until the meat is very tender (30 mins to 60 mins depending on cut).