Alright, people, my SousVide Supreme did not make me happy tonight. Not terribly mad, but the pork stew it produced after 24 hours at 160 was dry. Bleh. Granted, my meat CSA just labelled the package as “pork stew,” so it was probably filled with a mixture of pork cuts and not just pork butt. Plus, the pieces of meat weren’t uniform – not even close. Next time, I’ll choose a lower temp or check it after 6-8 hours.
As soon as I removed the pork from the vacuum pack, I knew I’d have to salvage the meat with some sort of sauce. Ta-da! Rao’s marinara sauce to the rescue. I love this shit. Although the meat was dry, I decided to quickly sear them off in some ghee (hoping against hope that the Maillard reaction would magically make it overwhelmingly delicious). Then, I heated up some Rao’s and I tossed the pork pieces in it.
I sliced up two small eggplant crosswise into ¼" pieces and brushed both sides with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkled on salt and pepper. Cooks Illustrated recommends salting eggplant 30 minutes before broiling but I don’t have that kind of time. Plus, my broiler is super hot so my eggplant doesn’t get all soggy. I placed the slices on a foil lined baking sheet (my SOP) and popped them on the tiptop rack of the oven set on broil. After a couple minutes, I rotated the tray and flipped the slices as soon as I saw some browning and let them broil for a couple minutes more on the other side. You’ve got to watch your eggplant closely because it can burn quickly. When I plated the eggplant, I drizzled on some fancy, aged balsamic vinegar.
Since I think three’s company, I made an additional side. I had some lacinato kale that I sauteed up with two chopped shallots in extra virgin olive oil. You should normally boil kale for ~ 7 minutes and drain it well before sauteing it but, again, I was too lazy to wait. I added some chicken broth and covered the kale for a few minutes to try to make it more tender but impatience won out.
Here’s the final plate:
Not a homerun. Good thing Renteria had one. Go Giants!
