Pork Braised in Cider--Linds

I think I'm going to be a loner on this meal for this week, and that's ok :). Kim is somewhat MIA on this blog, and Steph has a newly returned husband to attend to; I alone will represent our Martha meal for the week :). Wooh it was a doozy! talking to steph about it earlier this week she said "it looks like a ton of work" and I had quickly scanned through it and didn't realize how bad it would be. but she was right, it was a lot of work. And i didn't even make the little sachet thing because I didn't want to buy cheese cloth, twine, and fresh stuff. Believe me, it wasn't necessary.


I was a little worried after I bought my pork (only 2 pounds because that was the largest cut they had, as oppose to the 3 pounds martha called for) since it looked different than the pictures in the book. mine was like big and flat. The books' pork was like a mound, but it was fine anyway. I also bought a bottle of Martinelli's Sparkling Apple Cider to braise the pork in. That is the non-alcoholic version of this meal. I was bummed that the recipe ended up using the whole darn bottle and I didn't even get any left to drink.



Let the record show that this was my first time seeing, buying, cooking with, or eating parsnips AND leeks. So that was cool. I am really not a huge fan of either, but I didn't dislike them either. Just more mediocre-tasting vegetables to add to the list. OH and the recipe called for celery root, and I didn't want to buy any. For $4.98 a pound for some freaky looking things, I didn't think it was worth it. I used regular celery. I hope no one is laughing at me for doing that because I have no idea how it compares. Maybe celery and celery roots are in fact nothing alike at all, and I now look retarded for thinking one could replace the other. Hopefully that's not the case, but knowing my luck, it is. :)



I didn't cook the meat or the veggies for as long as it said to because we were so impatient to eat and it was taking so darn long. So I think the meat could have been a little more tender, and the vegetables too, but all in all it was good. Kenny really liked it, which to me makes the whole meal worth it. I don't care how long it takes when Kenny keeps going "mmm... mmm..." with every bite haha.



For all the steps in this I sure didn't do a good job photographing it all. But I did get a shot of the final product, minus the sauce which was off to the side in a very unattractive, glass measuring cup.


Would I ever do this again? Probably not. But it was certainly a good learning experience, and isn't that what this is all about?! Here's to learning.
By the way, does anybody know what the purpose of boiling the sauce from one cups down to 2 cups would be? Why can't we just pour out the extra cup of sauce instead of boil it into oblivion? Does it make a more concentrated taste? I have just never done that before and thought it was interesting...