Taking it nice and slow

Days that I'm not at work are great for two things; relaxing and cooking.  I really like being able to sleep in, make a pot of coffee, and just take my time getting going in the morning.  And then, I get into the cookbooks and figure out what I want to do.  I usually look for things that require a lot of prep and or slow cooking or a lot of ingredients.  This way I can fill up my entire day in the kitchen which is actually quite a bit of fun.  So, for today's all day cooking adventure, I went with a forever roasted pork dish from the Michael Chiarello Tra Vigne Cookbook.  

I'll admit, going for a slow roasted pork dish is a little bit of a cop out.  I mean, I don't really cook it all day. I do a little bit of prep work, pop it in the oven, and then go have an amazing lunch at Paseo.  But, I was able to learn a couple of new things today.  First, I learned how to use the delay start option on my oven.  Great technology that I think people absolutely need to take advantage of.  And second, I learned a new way to cook a pork roast.  Up until now, my pork roast consisted of mixing up some onion soup mix, sticking a pork roast in it, and cooking it up for an hour or so.  Not any more.

It was actually an incredibly simple dish that turned out well.  I cooked down some onions and a little bit of Meyer lemon, and stuck it inside the roast (I chose a shoulder butt for this one).  Then I rubbed a fennel spice rub all over the outside of it (fennel, coriander, white peppercorn, salt).  I put it in the over, and set the delay timer to cook it at 275, and took off for lunch.  The roast ended up cooking for a total of 5 hours.  Once it hit about hour 4, I started to get a little nervous.  Is it going to dry out?  Is it going to taste ok?  Should I order Thai just in case?  So I opened the oven and stuck a fork in it to see what happened.  Juices came pouring out, a piece flaked off, and it was delicious.  When we finally sat down to dinner, I added some steamed white rice, broccoli, and a lovely Oregon Pinot Noir and made a fantastic dinner (I know I'm biased, but it was gooood).

The delay timer on the oven and slow cooking process is an incredible find for me.  One of the biggest challenges to my cooking is my day job.  I am usually at the office from 8 in the morning until at least 6 at night, so I don't get home until almost 7 with the commute.  That means it is difficult to whip up a meal that requires any type of prep, or various cooking steps (fortunately there are the classics that I can whip out quickly).  But now, I know that I can put something in in the morning, or even the night before that can cook slowly throughout the day, and have the great dinners that I aspire to every evening.