Pork Shoulder in Chanterelle Sauce over Buckwheat
Submitted by kszyhu
Pork shoulder in chanterelle sauce over buckwheat: tender pressure-cooked pork in a fragrant wild-mushroom sauce with herbs, spooned over nutty buckwheat. A rustic, comforting Eastern European plate.
YIELD
2 servingsPREP
10 minCOOK
40 minREADY
55 minThis is rustic Eastern European comfort food, the kind tied to childhood memories of Sunday dinners. Pork shoulder pressure-cooks with bone, leek, dill, juniper, allspice, and even a few plums until it’s meltingly tender, building a deeply aromatic broth along the way.
That broth becomes the sauce. Fried onion and earthy chanterelles simmer with the strained cooking liquid and a fragrant mix of bear’s garlic, bay, thyme, and marjoram, then get thickened at the end with a cornstarch slurry into a glossy, herbaceous gravy.
It all goes over buckwheat, which is best cooked in mushroom stock so it soaks up that woodsy flavor. Serve with a tangy cucumber salad on the side, the traditional partner.
Pro Tips
- Cook the buckwheat in mushroom stock rather than plain water for far deeper, nuttier flavor.
- Strain the berries and scum out of the pressure-cooker liquid before building the sauce, for a clean finish.
- Thicken the sauce with cornstarch slaked in cold water so it stays smooth, not lumpy.
Variations
- Stir a splash of cream into the thickener for a richer sauce, as the recipe suggests.
- Use mixed wild mushrooms or rehydrated dried mushrooms if chanterelles are out of season.
- Serve over potatoes instead of buckwheat.
Ingredients
Directions
1 - A pressure cooker: pour in water, add meat, bone, leek, dill, juniper, allspice. plums, and ½ teaspoon of salt. Cook for 20 minutes. When ready, remove leaves, stems and pork bone. 2 - A pot #1: start cooking buckwheat in water with salt when the pressure cooker is busy. The best buckwheat in my opinion is when you cook it in mushroom stock with salt. You can use stems of mushroom, or dried mushrooms etc. 3 - A pot #2: fry onion, do not brown it, add chanterelles and fry for about 5 minutes on medium heat. 4 - A pot #2: pour in the sauce from the pressure cooker, excluding berries and scums. Add bear’s garlic, bay leaf, thyme and marjoram. Bring to boil and simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Add parsley in the meantime. Adjust salt, add some pepper. At the end thicken the sauce using cornstarch and small amount of cold water. 5 - A plate: serve over buckwheat or potatoes. Recommended salads: cucumber salad (mizeria), cornichon salad, preserved cucumber salad, carrot with horseradish salad. Many more salads fit. 6 - Comment: my sauce is without cream, but you may add some cream to the thickener at the end of cooking.
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