Food and Community

For me the two are inseparable. Every food memory I have includes the table of people I shared it with. Last night I was fortunate enough to share the table with the community at All Souls Church, and it. was. Amazing! Everyone was excited about the food, and I was super excited about sharing it!! For me the highlight was definitely the Peruvian Pork Stew, so, I thought I'd share it with you :)

Peruvian Pork Stew with Limes, Chilies, and Apples

adapted from Mark Bittman's New York Times Column, which I highly, highly recommend!!

Olive Oil

3-4 lbs boneless pork shoulder cut into stew sized chunks (if you want a leaner cut of meat, I recommend using chicken thighs)

2 white onions

4 large apples, peeled, and chopped

-I used dried apples, which really intensified the flavor! And, the apples that I used were from the Misch family's tree. I dried the apples back in September, and they were as tasty as ever in the stew!!

3 dried ancho chiles, roughly chopped

-FYI: ancho chiles are actually just dried poblanos, so, they are on the milder side. If you want more heat, feel free to leave all of the seeds in the stew.

3 bay leaves

pinch of ground cloves

4 cups chicken stock

rice for serving

chopped cilantro and roasted peanuts for topping

1) Heat the olive oil in a skillet and brown the pork in it on all sides; unless you have giant sized skillet, you're going to want to do this in batches. Once all the pork is browned, set it aside.

2) Saute the onions and apples in a pan with the chilies and cloves until the onions are tender, about 10ish minutes.

3) Combine all the ingredients in a Dutch oven, slow cooker, or heavy soup pot. Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce the heat to a very slow simmer.

4) If your using a slow cooker, turn it to high and walk away from it for about 4 hours. Otherwise, cover the pot, and let the magic happen. You'll want to stir the mixture every 30 minutes or so, for at least an hour; you want the meat to be falling apart and you'll know when you get to this point because your dinner guests will be salivating from the overwhelming porky aroma.

5) Once the meat is super tender, adjust the seasoning (more salt? maybe a dash more lime juice to cut through the fattiness of the pork?). At this point you can remove the pork and reduce the broth to intensify the flavor.

6) Serve over rice and top with cilantro and peanuts.

7) Aaaaaand of course enjoy!!