Pork with Red Wine

We went to see Julie & Julia over the weekend. It was a lot of fun to watch and, of course, made us want to eat lots of rich food and drink wine. We decided to try to find French cuisine that wouldn't break the bank. We didn't find a French restaurant that fit the bill, but fortunately, The Glenwood, one of our neighborhood restaurants, had a special of Scallops in Beurre Blanc. Yum!

What does this have to do with pork and red wine? Just that the essence of Julia Child (and serendipity) must have been surrounding us when I started making dinner the next day. I planned to use the slow cooker to cook a Boston butt from Riverview Farm. Interesting side note: the name Boston butt comes from Revolutionary War era. This shoulder cut was not considered one of the better ones and was packed in casks or barrels known as "butts." Ta-da!














So, I browned the Boston butt in a cast iron skillet and then threw it into the slow cooker with a broth-water mixture to cover and generous amounts of ancho chili powder, cumin, and regular chili powder. The intent was to have plenty of tasty shredded pork with which to make tacos and burritos. You may be imagining (correctly) that this is not at all what happened! After many hours in the slow cooker, the meat came out smelling delicious, but was actually very, very dry.

In the spirit of Julia Child and not being stumped by kitchen mishaps, Jason came up with a fantastic plan. We cubed some potatoes and Vidalia onion and tossed them into the skillet with some olive oil and a large piece of fat from the Boston butt to cook and crisp.
















Jason sliced the meat into several chunks and we tossed them in with the potatoes and added about a third of a cup of red wine. When the liquid was absorbed/evaporated we added another third of a cup of wine and let it simmer. Meanwhile, I cut up part of our never-ending supply of green beans and we tossed those in with another third of cup of wine. We covered the skillet and let it simmer and steam until the beans were tender.

















This was a fantastic meal. The wine really tenderized the meat and the seasonings from the slow cooker didn't interfere. There's no recipe for this since we just made it up as we went along. My husband sure knows how to save a meal!