Summer Pork Roast

Living in a house with meat eaters, well, it has to be on the menu every once in a while. So, I made one of my favorites this evening:

Braised pork roast with sun-ripened tomatoes

It's terribly simple, but also truly delicious.

Ingredients:

- one pork roast
- 3 small onions chopped (about a cup's worth)
- a good handfull of cocktail tomatoes (about twice the size of cherry tomatoes), or other sweet and ripe tomatoes quartered
- olive oil for browning
- a touch of garam marsala, or a sweet Indian mix, or simple some thyme tossed in
- a drizzle of flavorful honey (no more than a tablespoon and a half)
- 2 cups of white/rosé wine
- a sprinkle of sea salt

I used my heavy Creuset enameled cast iron post to make this. It is oval and just the right size for a roast (and for no-knead bread, but that's another story).

I brown the meat on high in the olive oil, then remove it. Then I toss in the onions with a bit more oil, and today, as I had some spare salted and sweated, rinsed and tapped-dry eggplant, I tossed that in as well. When the onions were just sweated, I added in the spices and tossed all these about for a moment, then added the tomatoes and stirred till a touch of liquid appeared. I then put back in the roast, nestling it into the middle of all these good veggies. I drizzled the honey on top, sprinkled in the salt, and poured on the wine. I then covered, lowering the heat to the minimal possible, and let it braise gently for an hour. We're actually going to eat it tomorrow for lunch. So when it cools, I'll pop it in the fridge, to be put back on the heat 10-15 minutes or so before we eat. I'll also remove the cover for the last 5 minutes to reduce the liquid, and perhaps continue reducing after removing the meat, to get just the right amount of juices...

Now, considering I've been attempting to do a variation of the grape mono-diet -- permitting crudités, salad, and my ratatouille (yum!!) at lunch but avoiding all meats, dairy, and starch--this is self-induced torture to make such a good roast and only taste it (I'm not a purist, have you noticed? tasting is permitted!).

Enjoy.