Sweet pears and spicy chiles mingle with the meaty juices of pork in this easy, company-worthy roast. The recipe calls for a pork shoulder or pork butt - whichever you choose, for a more elegant or formal presentation you'll want to tie it as a roast or ask the butcher to do it for you. Don't let an untied roast keep you from making this delight - it's equally good in the less formal, untied form.
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Cook Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours, 50 minutes
Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients:
- 2 tsp. fine sea salt
- 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
- 1 pork butt or shoulder roast in the 3-4 lb. range
- 2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
- 1 cup white wine or chicken broth
- 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice
- 12 garlic cloves
- 2 dried arbol chiles
- 1 large dried red chile, a mild one like a dried red New Mexico chile works well
- 6 Bosc or Anjou pears
Preparation:
- Combine the salt and pepper in a small dish and then rub the mixture all over and into the pork roast. Set the roast in a dish, cover it, and chill it for at least an hour and, ideally, overnight or up to two days.
- Preheat an oven to 350°F. Meanwhile, heat a large, heavy, ovenproof pot (a Dutch oven is an excellent option) over high heat. Once the pot is hot, pour in the oil. Pat the pork roast dry and add it to the pot. Cook the pork without disturbing it until well browned on that side, about 4 minutes. Turn the roast and brown on all sides, adjusting the heat to keep the pork sizzling but not burning. Transfer the pork roast to a plate, platter, or baking sheet.
- Reduce the heat to medium and add the wine or broth and lemon juice, scraping up all the browned bits from the pot as you do so. As the liquid then comes to a boil, peel the garlic cloves. Once the liquid is boiling, add the garlic and chiles. Return the pork to the pot and bring the liquid back to a boil. Cover the pork and bake in the preheated oven until the meat tender when pierced with a fork, about 2 hours.
- Meanwhile, you can quarter, core, and peel the pears. Once the pork is tender, add the pears to the pot, cover, and bake until the pears are cooked through and tender, about 30 minutes.
- Let the roast rest for at least 20 minutes an up to half an hour before lifting it out of the pot and cutting it into slices. Serve everything hot, with pan juices for people to add at the table, if they like. Feel free to remove some of the fat from the pan juices first, if you like.
