R E C I P E S

Porc aux Pruneaux (Pork with Prunes)

By James MacGuire

This recipe is based on the dish as I saw it made in 1980 at the former bistro La Marmite in Tours, run by the chef Charles Barrier next door to his three-Michelin-star restaurant. Prunes hadn’t been produced in the area for a long time, but they were still used in local cooking — even in, strange as it may seem, eel stew. Pork with prunes wasn’t at the forefront of regional specialties, although it was fairly common, usually made with white wine from nearby Vouvray and with cream, and finished with red-currant jelly. Barrier’s red-wine version, made slightly sweet by the prunes and slightly sour by vinegar, makes more sense. For a balanced taste, the sauce needs a certain meatiness, provided in professional kitchens by glace de veau. At home, you can use a pork rib roast instead, so the role of the glace is filled by deglazing the roasting pan and adding the bones to the simmering liquid for the sauce. Usually, the dish is made with noisettes, which are essentially boneless chops; the thick slices of the boned roast below are very much like them. Boiled potatoes are a good accompaniment, and the wine could be a Bourgueil or Chinon, made from Cabernet Franc just downriver from Tours.

 

a pork rib roast, weighing 2¼ to 2½ pounds (about 1 kilo), bone in, preferably from the end nearest the shoulder

salt and black pepper

1 cup (about 250 ml) dark red wine, fruity but not overly tannic

16 prunes, preferably from Agen

1 small onion (about 70 gr), in ½-inch (1-cm) dice

½ carrot (about 50 gr), in ½-inch (1-cm) dice

a 2-inch (5-cm) piece of celery stalk (about 30 gr) in ½-inch (1-cm) dice

2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot

2 teaspoons good red-wine vinegar

1 teaspoon cornstarch

sugar

 

Heat the oven to 325° F (165° C). Put the meat into a roasting pan just large enough to hold it (too much empty pan will scorch). Season the meat with salt and pepper, and put it into the oven. In a small pot, bring the wine and prunes to a boil, then set aside. After 45 minutes of roasting, place the onion, carrot, and celery around the meat and stir briefly to coat them with fat. After another 15 minutes, begin checking the roast for doneness (if the vegetables are browning too quickly, add a bit of water to the pan). In about 20 more minutes (making a total of roughly 80 minutes), the meat next to the bone will reach 145° F (63° C) — this is an old-fashioned dish, so it shouldn’t be pink. Remove the meat to a plate to cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

Separate the meat from the bones with a long, straight carving knife: place the blade flat along the extremity of the ribs and, keeping the blade flush with them, cut the ribs free, being careful to leave the meat intact. Depending on the butcher, the chine bones (the thin bones that formed half the spine) may be present; if so, repeat the process to separate them.

The removed ribs will look like spare ribs. Separate them one from another with a knife, or by tearing, and return all the bones to the roasting pan. Add any juices that have run from the roast as it cooled and was cut, and place the pan in the oven for another 10 to 15 minutes. This step is important. The goals are to brown the ribs slightly and, even more, to evaporate the bit of juice in the bottom of the pan so it forms a beautiful brown glaze. Beware of spattering fat as you remove the pan from the oven and carefully pour off the grease.

Place the roasting pan over a burner set at medium-low; add the shallots and stir for about 10 seconds. Then add the red-wine vinegar and about ⅔ cup (150 ml) of water and use a wooden spatula or spoon to dissolve the glaze. Place the entire contents, including the bones, in a pot. Add the wine from the prunes, but not the prunes themselves. Simmer for about 10 minutes, strain, and return the liquid to the same pot. There should be about 1 cup (225 ml); if not, add some cold water.

Bring the liquid back to a simmer and add any juices that have flowed from the meat on the platter. Make a slurry of the cornstarch and ¼ cup (50 ml) of cold water and add it to the pot in small doses, stirring until you have a saucelike consistency. It won’t take much (the amount needed depends on the gelatinousness of the bone-wine reduction) — err on the thin side.

Taste the sauce for salt and pepper, and adjust as necessary. Now taste it again for sweet and sour. It should have an edge but shouldn’t be puckery. You can add just a bit of sugar — be careful not to make it too sweet — or, better yet, chop one of the prunes very fine and add it to the sauce. Heat the prunes in the sauce.

Slice the roast ½ inch (1 cm) thick, arrange the slices on a warm platter, put the prunes around, and pour the sauce over the meat. Serves 4.

From The Art of Eating Cookbook

Print Friendly, PDF & Email