Perfect Braised Pork, Soubise and Shaved Carrot Salad

Ingredients

For the braise:

• 1.5lbs pork shoulder, cut into 2” cubes
• 1 large onion, peeled and roughly sliced
• 5 cloves garlic, peeled and cut in half
• 3 cups of beef stock
• Fine salt
• 2 tbsp butter, room temperature
• 2 tbsp flour
• Red wine vinegar

For the salad:

• 2 large carrots, thinly shaved or peeled lengthwise into long thing strips
• 1 bunch of chives

For the soubise:

• 3 large yellow onions, peeled
• 2 tbsp butter
• Salt

Directions

1. Prepare Pork: Preheat oven to 325 f. Place an oven/stovetop safe braising dish over high heat until extremely hot. Generously salt pork cubes. Add 1 tbsp of veg oil to the hot pan and place pork in an even layer. Sear without moving for 1 minute. Flip pork and repeat. Reduce to low, add onion/garlic and a few whole chives to pan with pork. Sauté for 5 minutes. Add stock or red wine, the meat should be at least ¾ submerged. Cover with a tight-fitting lid or tin foil and braise for 2.5 hours.
2. Prepare soubise: Cut peeled onions into thin half-moons or any thin slices. Add to a pot with 2 tbsp oil and 1 tsp salt. Cover and set over lowest heat for about 1 hour. If it begins to brown at all, add more oil. It should release tons of liquid and cook slowly in its own liquid. After one hour, transfer to a blender and blend on high speed. While blending, feed in 2 tbsp of butter. Continue blending for a minute or until completely smooth. Season with more salt if needed.
3. Make salad: Add shaved carrots to a bowl with chopped chives (about ¾ of the bunch chopped up). Add 1 tbsp of oil and 2 tsp of red wine vinegar and ½ tsp of salt. Toss and taste. Add more salt, vinegar, or oil if needed.
4. Season pork gravy and serve: Transfer the pork to a clean saucepan. Some onion will stick to the pork, that is ok! Strain the liquid into a new saucepan, disposing of onion/garlic. Reheat liquid until boiling. In a bowl, mix flour/butter to make a smooth paste –a Beurre Manie. To strained liquid add half the paste, 2 tsp red wine vinegar, 1 tsp salt. Whisk to combine. Taste the gravy then add more salt/vinegar if needed. If the gravy is too thin, add another 1/2 of the beurre manie until you’ve reached a perfect consistency. To finish, drizzle gravy overtop of pork, reheat in saucepan at a very low heat with a tight fitting lid. Put soubise into individual bowls and top with pork and gravy. Garnish with chives or carrot salad. Enjoy!