Tuscan Soul Tacos

Long ago, I was full of bluster about my big pork shoulder plans. I had planned to tweak a successful recipe from the River Cafe Cookbook, a favorite in our home.* Crispy skin, tender meat, suffuses home with aroma of a Tuscan trattoria. Thought I could improve the recipe with a brine. Hell, Christopher Kimball brines everything, even his in-laws. The planned Cook's 6 hr brine turned into a 24 hr brine, but I was unconcerned. Otherwise, I followed the procedure I had in the past-40 minutes or so at high heat, smear with a paste of lemon, garlic, fennel, red pepper, and olive oil, lower to as low as it goes, and cook til the bones twist right out, being careful to keep enough liquid in the pan to keep the drippings from turning back. All went according to plan until the removal. The flesh was tender enough, but not unctuous--almost flaky, sort of like well-done salmon or tuna. Strange things afoot, brinewise. As the shoulder is pretty un-lean naturally, it is poss the brine did more to leach out juice than to restore a semblance of juiciness and flavor to one of those scary pig-as-modern-pentathlete cuts like the loin or chop. The skin, also, was as rugged as a 3"GI Joe. I blame the brine. If I were Kimball, I would make 70 more, each brined for a different period, then feed them to my serfs. (The secret of consistent, cracker-like skin on roast pork is one of my major frustrations as a cook. Once, I attained the "pork candy" ideal Sam Sifton describes in re the caja china, and I was so pleased I hardly minded that it was in Queens, and the same night that the Red Sox dropped game 3  of the 2004 ALCS 19-8  to go down 3-0.)  Anyway, efforts have been ongoing to exhaust this internally toothsome, but not compelling hoard of pork. In a fit of perverse desperation, I decided to desecrate one of my favorite chef's recipes, a lightning-quick chiffonade of collard greens with a balsamic reduction. It goes like this:

brown some mashed garlic in a slug of oil in a skillet, add a hot pepper or two you make a big roll of de-stemmed collard leaves, slice into thin ribbons (imagine cutting the end off of a cigar, over and over). Sizzle the collards in the oil until they turn a brighter green, 2-3 minutes, then add maybe 1/3 c. of balsamic--utility balsamic is fine, and continue cooking until greens are almost dry.

My "refinement" was to add several handfuls of chopped pork at the initial stage, which brings the process back closer to the usual accompaniment of collards w/ pork, but without the endless stewing. I had earlier drained and defatted the drippings, and had blended the fennely drippings with some stock, and returned a bit of the fat to the mix. The pork and the collards came together nicely with the Tuscan flavor. To serve, as it was getting late, 2d polenta, aka corn tortillas, warmed in adjacent skillet, and secreted in oven. Thus, Tuscan soul tacos. Surprisingly popular in the Codhold. Diversity is important. A bonus is that the inner sanctum of the collard looks like the photo above, so you can play "Little Shop" before you compost.

Confidential to the folks who held the fake "genocide rally" today: I sent the donation to Planned Parenthood  just like I promised.

*Caveat: The River Cafe people have several nearly interchangeable UK and US editions of their cookbook in one form or another--one will do you, and it does not matter that much which one, kinda like Lyle Lovett records.

Comments

[alizinha]

I'm usually pretty strict on my taco-authenticity rule, but these sound so good--and the polenta/corn tortilla switchout makes sense, too.

[furious]

I hope you get hits from people searching for "pig-as-modern-pentathlete." That was a keeper.

[max]

Actually, the first River Cafe book is better. The blue one. I'm interested in the shoulder brining dilemma: I recently had (un-brined) shoulder end up unpleasantly dry, and I'm wondering is the last bastion of properly fatty pork has fallen to the miracles of modern hog breeding.

[Fesser]

Do you mean the UK or US edition of River Cafe? I seem to recall encountering a blue one that was very similar to my yellow one. Has pics of old man + pig, lots of wood roasted veggie receipts, slightly pretentious design, so forth?

[max]

US: #1 and #2. Their "recipes" are so simple (not to mention gnomic) that they shot their wad on the first one. I think, anyway.