Ladies and Gentlemen, I have Really Gone and Done it This Time!

My grandmother, who was a great cook and her own biggest cheerleader, would slave away at elaborate meals pretty frequently. Upon sitting down at the table, while everyone else was engrossed in eating, my grandmother would take one bite, slap the table with both fists and stridently proclaim, "Rose Bondi, you've done it again!" Well, after the meal I cooked on Saturday, I found myself doing just the same thing.

Lately I haven't been able to get cochon de lait out of my head. This is a dish that is hugely popular in Cajun Louisiana and typically features a whole pig on a spit. One of my favorite interpretations of the dish I discovered at Storyville, one of my old places of employment. Their cochon was more like a pulled pork, paired brilliantly with braised collard greens and sweet potato cakes with tasso and then doused with a whiskey-bbq sauce.

So, I bought my greens and sweet potatoes, took out a pork tenderloin and went to town recreating it. It was really delicious, I'm sorry that my porcine-eschewing friends won't be able to enjoy this.

Greens:

1 bunch greens, wash and picked over for woody stems
1 onion, diced
4 slices bacon, chopped
16 oz. stock
1 bay leaf
1/4 c. vinegar (I used rice wine vinegar)

Render the bacon in a stockpot, add onions and cook until soft, about 15 minutes. Add a bit of oil if the bacon grease isn't enough, not too much though. Add the stock, vinegar and bay leaf, bring up to a high simmer. Once it's there, turn it down and simmer for 45 minutes to and hour. You can make these up to a couple days ahead of time.

Cochon de Lait:

1 lb pork tenderloin, trimmed and cut into chunks
spice rub-I used a mix of cayenne, coriander, garlic, cumin, thyme, smoked paprkia, dried mustard, black pepper and salt
1 onion, diced
1 carrot, chopped
1 T mustard-praline glaze*
1/4 c. vinegar
1 cup water or stock

Rub the spices into the meat and let sit anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours. Add all the other ingredients into a shallow baking dish, cover with foil and cook in a 300 degree oven for 1 1/2-2 hours. Remove from the oven and shred the meat with two fork. There will be a good amount of liquid in the pan, continue to cook down and reduce. After about 15-20 minutes, reincorporate the meat into the pan juices to keep it moist.

Mashed Sweet Potatoes

2 large Louisiana yams
1 1/2 T. butter
1-2 T light sour cream
2 green onion, chopped
salt and pepper

Roast the yams in the oven while cooking the pork (or for perfect timing, roast at 350 degrees, remove from oven and then add the pork. This allows time for the yams to cool.) Remove the skins and mash with the other ingredients until smooth.

As a crowning glory, I battered some onion slices and fried them to garnish the top. This dish makes a little meat go a long way, this probably could have fed four people with only one pound of tenderloin.

*Dr. Pete's mustard-praline glaze is what I used in the pork. If you don't have that, it was basically brown sugar, ground pecans, mustard and some spices. You could add that or even some good barbeque sauce instead. As long as it's sweet and spicy.