This pork stew is made from pork shoulder. It tastes slow-cooked, but I made it in an Instant Pot … which would make you think it must have been quick-cooked, but it was actually rather involved and time consuming for an Instant Pot recipe. Lovely results, in any case.
Pork Stew
Course: Dinner6-12
servingsThis is not your typical set-it-and-forget-it Instant Pot recipe. It requires you to actually cook. Uh oh!
Ingredients
21 oz. (3 cups) jasmine rice
24 oz. (3 cups) water
3 tsp salt, divided
2 lb. bone-in pork shoulder, meat cut from the bone and sliced into 2-inch cubes
4-5 Tbs olive oil, divided
8 oz. button mushrooms, sliced
1 lb. butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1½-inch dice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 med white onion, peeled and cut into ½-inch dice
2 celery stalks, cut into ½-inch dice
2 med carrots, (peeled and) cut into ½-inch dice
1-2 tsp dried thyme
1-2 tsp dried oregano
1 cup chicken stock
1 med yellow bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, cut into ½x2-inch strips
1-2 bay leaves
1 can (28 oz.) plum tomatoes
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
12 oz. frozen peas
Freshly ground black pepper
Sour cream for service (optional)
Directions
- Rinse the rice at least 3 times. Place rice, water, and 1 tsp salt in Instant Pot. Set the Instant Pot’s RICE function to normal (time), low (pressure); natural release for 10 minutes. Remove the rice from the pot. Cool and refrigerate. Reheat when ready to serve.
- Wash and dry the Instant Pot’s inner pot.
- Set the Instant Pot to SAUTÉ, more, 30 minutes. While you’re waiting for the “hot” indication, fold the pork – including the bones – into several layers of paper towels to dry it. Once you have the hot indication, add 2 Tbs oil to the pot, lift the inner pot out of the exterior pot and swirl it around to make sure the entire bottom of the pot is coated, and distribute half of the pork across the bottom of the pot. Ideally, the pieces should either be touching one another only lightly, or not at all. (Top pot with a spatter screen.) After 3-4 minutes, use long-handled tongs to turn the pieces. If they don’t seem to want to release from the pan, give it a minute and try again. Transfer to a plate. (Add another Tbs of oil to the pan and) repeat with remaining pork.
- Add mushrooms to the pan in a similar fashion: they should touch one another lightly or not at all. (Cook them in batches if need be.) Brown 2 minutes. Use a large pancake flipper to mix and flip them, and continue browning them for 1 more minute. Remove from pot and add to pork. (When the pot timer runs down, reactivate the SAUTÉ and accept its default settings.)
- Add the squash to the pot. Cook, stirring occasionally for 4 minutes. Add 2 Tbs oil. Add garlic, onion, celery, and carrots, thyme, oregano, and remaining 2 tsp salt to the pan, and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, 4 more minutes. Add stock and meticulously deglaze pan with a wooden spatula. CANCEL the sauté.
- Add pork bones, peppers, and bay. Remove tomatoes from the can one at a time; hold them down into the pot just above its contents – quite carefully, because the pot and its contents are hot – squash them in your fist, then drop them into the pot. Add remaining can contents and stir. Add the pork and mushrooms to the pan in an even layer. Do not stir. Set the Instant Pot to MEAT/STEW, more (45 minutes), high (pressure). Natural release for as long as it takes (30 minutes).
- Stir in parsley and peas. Cover and allow the “keep warm” function to warm the peas through. Remove and discard bones. Stir in pepper to taste. Serve with sour cream.
Notes
- I developed this recipe for a six-quart Instant Pot. If using a different size or type of pot, you may need to make modifications. Althought the pot may say “instant,” this recipe’s long list of ingredients will make for anything but quick work. Maybe this is more of a weekend dish than a weeknight dish.
The stew’s flavor is deep and very homey. The peas are essential to the dish in that they brighten it up. It’s got great body, is super satisfying, and is probably highly caloric. It tastes like you cooked it all day … and it kind of feels like you did. The rice isn’t essential, but it does complement the dish, doubles the number of servings, and cuts down the fat-per-serving. Plus, the stew is gorgeous over the white rice.
Altough I didn’t shoot the dish with the optional sour cream garnish, sour cream is fantastic with this stew.
Social Learning
I like San Marzano tomatoes. Yes, their price is eyebrow-raising. But so is their flavor. Use another type, and don’t wonder why the result is kind of meh or needs a whole lot of zuzhing. When you buy them, though, check the ingredient label. If it says “tomatoes,” but it doesn’t specify San Marzano, it’s probably deceptive marketing.
Prep
I love a large cutting board, I cannot lie. And I prefer polyethylene, because it’s so easy to sanitize and hard to destroy. I have two such boards that I’ve used for years. Over time, they warp. You find ways to fix it, though. Eventually, they also take on stains that are hard to get out. I found a new polyethylene board recently at an Asian market near me. It’s quite an amazing board. It’s 20x15x¾-inches. Yes, it’s ¾-inch thick! It has a slight bevel on one the edges of one side, which appears to be designed to keep it flat. It does slide around on granite countertops, but I counteract that by placing it on a large Silpat.
The pork shoulder that I bought came cut like steaks, about ½-inch thick. So, when I cut it into “cubes,” those cubes were really rectangles. I think if the shoulder had come as a roast, I might cut it into 2x2x½-inch rectangles anyway, because in the finished stew, these were generous, yet still bite-sized. When you fish out the bones, you’ll find that all the meat has been cooked right off of them and they come out clean – which is so satisfying.
You brown the pork primarily for the flavor of the sear. If you overcrowd the pan when browning the pork, the pork with turn grey instead of brown, and you won’t get that flavor. If this happens, remove a few pieces as you’re flipping, and brown the removed pieces in a subsequent, less-crowded batch.
Instant Pot
Forty-five minutes in the Instant Pot is going to give the vegetables quite a soft texture. If you like them a bit firmer, you might skip or reduce their sauté time. (I sautéed for added flavor.)
If you get a “burn” indication, it’s because your deglaze wasn’t as thorough as you thought. The Instant Pot is unforgiving about this. What you’ll have to do is note the countdown on the pot, CANCEL the meat/stew function, quick release – which takes forever – and then use a wooden spatula to scrape the bottom of the pot. Fortunately, it’s easy to feel where the fond is, and it scrapes up easily. Reactivate the MEAT/STEW function, altering its timing to whatever the countdown was when you stopped.
Pork Stew
Credit for images on this page: Make It Like a Man! unless otherwise credited. This content was not solicited by anyone, nor was it written in exchange for anything. References: Cooking on the Weekends, Land O’Lakes, NYT Cooking. Thank you, Kesor. Make It Like a Man! is ranked by Feedspot as #15 in the Top 30 Men’s Cooking Blogs.
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