Italian-Style Slow-Roasted Pork Butt

When I made my two-week menu plan and grocery list on the 6th, I added this recipe that I found on Wegmans website.  What attracted me to it was the ease of prep and the variety of meals I could get out of it.  So here goes...

Sunday night, I sliced up 3 oranges and 2/3 of the biggest onion you've ever seen!

I scored (cut criss-cross) the fat on top of my pork butt and rubbed all sides with minced garlic, salt, pepper and fennel seed.  Then I wrapped it up in plastic and stuck it in the fridge overnight.  Monday morning I set my convection oven (not my crock pot) to 275 degrees, unwrapped the pork, slid it in the oven and set my timer for 7 hours.  The first 3.5 hours, I thought the garlic smell was really strong.  I am a huge garlic lover, but I was hosting a homeschooling get together at the house that afternoon and I was worried about scaring off the other families.  By hour 4.5, however, the garlic had mellowed.  :o)

This is what it looked like the minute it came out of the oven...

...and this is what it looked like 15 minutes later after the hubs and I had done some "quality assurance" testing and I had pulled the bone out of it.  (Notice the hole in the center where I cut out a piece of crispy fat.)  At this point, you can shred the meat for tacos or add some BBQ sauce for sammies.  But I did not do that.  

After it had cooled for about an hour, I put the roast on a platter, wrapped it up in plastic again and stuck it back in the fridge to solidify.  BTW, have you ever noticed that there is no "d" in the word "refrigerator" but there is a "d" in the word "fridge"?  Wazzup wit dat?

Tonight I pulled the roast out of the fridge and sliced off 3 pieces.  For those of you who are reacting squeamishly over the pink color of my pork, get over it.  Pork is safe to eat now.  You no longer have to cook pork all the way through like poultry.  But this pink color is not b/c it is raw or not cooked all the way through.  It's b/c it had not been exposed to air yet.

I heated my non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and then dropped my 3 slices into the dry, hot pan.

I let them dry fry for 3 minutes and then turned them over for another 2 minutes.

Ta da!  I served it over garlic mashed potatoes with peas.  I had a busy day today, so I apologize for the lack of creativity on the veg.  

I'll tell you how to make wonderful garlic mashed potatoes without going overboard on the garlic flavor or biting down on a piece of garlic.  Into a small pan add 1/2 cup of milk and 3 or 4 crushed garlic cloves.  (Crushed means to lay the side of your wide knife on top of an unpeeled clove of garlic and pound once on your knife with the heel of your hand.  The clove will split somewhat and slide right out of the skin.)  While your potatoes are boiling, warm the garlic and milk up until the little heat "waves" rise up but not so that it simmers or bubbles.  When your potatoes are done, turn off the heat under your milk, too.  Throw the garlic cloves away and use the garlic-flavored milk as your liquid to mash the potatoes along with any butter, salt, pepper or sugar that you also may put in.  Yes, I said sugar.  I put sugar in my non-garlic mashed potatoes b/c my mom did when I was growing up.  And she did it b/c her mom put sugar in her mashed potatoes.  It actually tastes very good and I always get compliments on my patooties.  But you only put in a little bit.  Too much and your potatoes turn to glue.

The rest of my roast I cut into thirds and put into the freezer.  I'll use them for tacos or BBQ sammies later.  Or, I might just fry up some more slices!

P.S. - the recipe says to reserve the juices for gravy and you can serve the onions with the pork, if you like.  There was not enough gravy to separate the fat in my gravy separator and the oranges had been so obliterated during cooking, you could not separate them from the onions.  So I had to toss it all.  But the pork was tender enough that I did not need any gravy.