The Spice Is Right: Pork Stew With Orange And Fennel

I've wanted to make this recipe ever since I bought my At Home With Michael Chiarello cookbook.  The pictures are beautiful and you can't help but be influenced by the author's relentless hunkiness.  I previously made one recipe from the book, Pasta With Uncooked Watercress, a recipe touted as extremely quick, which was a blatant lie. I discovered that tearing individual watercress leaves from their stems proved time consuming and annoying.  However, the idea of this Pork Stew With Orange And Fennel was just too tempting.  But once again, I found myself bogged down by a lot of busy work, cursing a certain good looking chef from the Napa Valley. 

But, back to the recipe. It's full of good flavors, the most dominant being orange, rosemary and fennel.  And the fennel makes this perfect for Warm Me up Baby! It's Cold Outside, part of The Spice Is Right created by Barbara of Tigers and Strawberries, guest hosted this week by Rosie, of Bitchin' in the kitchen with Rosie, who has the rules for taking part in this event..  Although this dish lacks chili peppers, it's rich with the tingle of fennel.  And what could be more warming than a nice bowl of steaming stew, served on soft polenta?  Although it was a cold and dreary day yesterday when I served this to my cousin Charmayne and her handsome boyfriend Julius, a bowl of this stew made us feel quite cozy.  Much to my delight, Charmayne is moving to Sacramento in February, and this recipe was a good way to celebrate that happy fact.

I made the stew on Saturday---and despised it by the time I was finished. It calls for browning a lot of meat and vegetables, and I had doubled the recipe.  With the memory of endless watercress plucking still on my mind, the browning process seemed interminable!  When I finally finished the stew I surveyed a kitchen covered with a splatters of oil everywhere. And to make matters worse, the stew tasted awful.  I stashed it in the fridge and vowed never to fix a Michael Chiarello recipe again. 

However, when I tasted it the next day, it was very good.  Clearly, elves had worked their magic overnight in my kitchen yet again.  The fennel and orange gave the stew a sweet, spicy taste  that everyone enjoyed.  Fennel seed has always been a big favorite of mine since I first tasted it as a child, in some bread made by a neighbor from Sweden. It has a faint anise like flavor, and is supposed to be good for digestion. I don't know about that--I just know that it tastes very good in bread, soups and stews.

There are no pictures of me making the stew, covered with grease as I was.  But, I made the world's easiest polenta in a double boiler.  If you've never made polenta this way, you're probably working much too hard making it. No constant stirring is required, just a stir every 15 minutes or so.

Pork and Orange, Fennel Stew With Soft Polenta  (Michael Chiarello)

1-1/2 pounds boneless pork shoulder, cut into bite-size chunks
regular salt or Citrus salt
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons fennel seeds (toasted and ground)
2 tablespoons Cointreau
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

6 cups chicken stock or canned low salt chicken broth
1 bay leaf
1-1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter or extra virgin olive oil
3/4 pound potatoes, peeled and diced into 1/2-inch cubes
12 pearl onions, peeled
2 cups shiitake or crimini mushrooms, quartered (stems removed)
12 baby carrots, stemmed
1 tablespoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh rosemary
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon finely grated orange zest
2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

Season the pork well with salt. Heat 4 tablespoons of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium-high heat until hot. (The generous amount of oil allows the meat to brown well. The excess will be drained off.) Add the pork, making sure not to crowd the pan. Let the pork brown on one side before turning, then sauté until well browned all over, about 10 minutes. Remove the meat by pouring contents of the pan into a sieve to drain the excess fat.

Return the pan to high heat and add the meat. Add the fennel spice, Cointreau, red wine, and orange juice. Stir and scrape the bottom and sides of the pan to loosen all the browned bits. Bring the mixture to a boil, then simmer until reduced by half.
Add the stock and bay leaf. Reduce the heat to low and simmer slowly, covered, for about 45 minutes, or until the meat is very tender.

In a large sauté pan, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil with the butter over medium-high heat. Add the potatoes, onions, mushrooms, and carrots. Sauté for about 15 minutes, or until all the vegetables are well-browned (Regulate the heat so the vegetables brown but do not burn, add additional oil if necessary). Add the garlic and rosemary and sauté briefly just to brown the garlic. Season with salt and pepper.

Scrape the contents of the sauté pan into the stew. Cook the stew for another 15 minutes.  Just before serving, stir the orange zest and parsley into the stew.  Serve with noodles or polenta.

Double Boiler Polenta

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Serves 4

4 cups boiling water
1 tsp. salt
1 cup polenta (or stone ground cornmeal)
2-4 Tablespoons butter
1/2  cup grated parmesan

Bring about 2 inches of water to boil in bottom of double boiler; reduce to simmer and maintain throughout cooking process.

Into the top pan of the double boiler, set over the simmering water, add 4 cups boiling water. Add salt, then gradually sprinkle in the polenta, whisking constantly to avoid lump formation.
Cover and cook until polenta is very soft and smooth, 1 to 1 1/2 hours, stirring for several seconds every 10 to 15 minutes. (Once cooked, polenta can be covered and saved in the double boiler up to 4 hours, with the water simmering in the bottom pan. stir in a bit of water if necessary.)

Comments

[Mae]

Looks delicious! Lovely plating, Sher. Are the photos from your Rebel?

I'm so hungry right now.

[Rosie]

Sher -

Thanks for suffering for me like that - I am glad that all your hard work came to fruition!

[Kalyn]

Wow, the photos are awesome. This looks just totally yummy. Please come over and make some for me!

[Jeff]

I SO need to make polenta!! I just can't find it in the store

[Julie]

That first picture is Delicious! Makes me hungry just to look at it. I like things that actually improve by being made ahead. It's so nice to have a big part of the meal preperation out of the way when you're getting a meal on the table.

[sher]

Mae,

Thank you! Yes, the pics are from the Rebel. I'm really enjoying it, I must say!

Rosie,

Thank you! Yes, it turned out to be delicious. Doubling the recipe resulted in a lot more time to browning things. I would make this again--but I'll be prepared.

Kalyn,

Thank you! I'll make some for you, but first I need to recover from all the browning. Have to admit, I'm not a big fan of splattering grease! For some reason, it happened a lot with this recipe. :):)

Jeff,

You can use cornmeal, stone ground if possible. In the South, we used to do that, but it wasn't called polenta. It was called mush! :)

Julie,

Thank you! It really was delicious and I could appreciate it more by making it in advance. Plus, this is the kind of dish that gets better after it sits in the fridge overnight.

[ann]

that does sound intriguingly delicious... Deb over at smitten kitchen recently did a post about how annoyingly fussy mr chiarello is... pretty funny if you ask me.
he's like the exact opposite of tyler florence!

gorgeous piccies! i see you and your rebel are getting on nicely :-)

[Tanna]

Your first photo stopped me cold - wow that looks so good.
So you would or would not make this again?
You would certainly want polenta easy to go with this involved cooking experience.
He really is cute.

[Christine]

In my own experience, Mr. Chiarello has always disappointed then somehow miraculously redeemed himself. Go figure!
Fab photos, Sher.

[Jennifer]

Wow Sher, that looks magnificent! Very comforting too! And you take awesome pictures!

[gattina]

I like fennel seeds too... in crackers, bread... my mom used to add some in her pork stew, really hearty and yummy!
You photos really make me dazzling... the colors are so beautiful!

[e]

Oh my...your polenta has the most delicious looking consistency. I will definitely try this method next time. Thanks!

[aria]

hi sher, wow! the pork looks perfectly cooled, i can just tast it. i love the way fennel tastes in stew too, it gets so sweet. the broth looks so delish on top of the polenta, MMMM!

[Sarah]

What a fantastic combination of flavors. Especially when paired with that soft polenta.

[Lisa]

Mmmmmm.

I just finished this, and fresh off the stove it tastes wonderful, with the orange and fennel playing on my tongue. Now, you say it tastes better on day two? I can't wait for leftovers.

[ejm]

Excuse me for commenting so late on this. I have just discovered that Barbara's Spice is Right event DID continue after SiR VIII.

We just had chicken with orange gravy the other night and I was reminded about how wonderfully oranges go well in savoury dishes. Your stew looks divine. I've had orange and fennel salad and know that they marry well. I bet they are superb with pork. Thanks for posting the recipe.

-Elizabeth

[Melly]

Well Sher, hope you are doing fine up there! I came by to check out your pork-type recipes. Pork was on sale at Raley's this past week.

I love this one. The wonton soup looks good as well. Hmmmm.

Because of you, I now am using my cast iron cookware much more often.

Still missing you.

[Brigitte Keen]

Made the stew just now and it's beautiful straight from the pot. Wonderful flavors in the sauce. Next time I will serve it on deep plates to contain the sauce. Love the combined flavors of the orange, fennel, red wine etc. Not one flavor dominates but everythíng blends perfectly to result in something to make the tastebuds sing! Will make it next for guests.