Quintessential Winter Braise of Crete
A classic dish served during the winter in Crete. Flavorful, comforting, and easy to make. This recipe makes enough for 4 hearty dinner portions, but it’s easy to scale up or down.
Ingredients:
For the stew:
2/3 cup olive oil
2 pounds pork loin roast or serloin roast (you can use pork shoulder too, but in that case cut out the oil as it is a very fatty cut and will create it own oil), cut into stew-size pieces and well-dried on paper towels
1 onion, chopped
2 leeks (white part only), chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon thyme leaves, or dried oregano
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 lemons, zest and juice separated
1 pound celery, including the leaves, chopped into 2“ long pieces (important: peel outside of stalks before chopping)
1 bunch scallions, chopped (white & dark parts)
1 bunch fresh dill, chopped
water, as needed to cover
Salt, pepper to taste
For the egg-lemon sauce:
2 eggs, room temperature
reserved lemon juice
Method:
- In a dutch oven, heat about half of the olive oil on medium, unless using a fatty cut of pork, in which case omit the oil. Add the pork and brown on all sides.
- Add the onion, leek, and herbs, turn down heat to medium/low and cook for 10 minutes, or until the leeks and onion are soft.
- Add enough water to cover the pork. Bring to a simmer, turn down heat, cover, and cook for 30 minutes to 1.5 hours until pork is fork tender (timing will vary depending on the cut you use, pork shoulder will take the longest).
- Add the celery, stir, cover, and contiune to cook on a low simmer another 1- 1-1/2 hours. Season with a couple large pinches of salt and pepper. Add more water as necessary. It is done when the meat is fork-tender and the celery is soft.
- When the meat and celery is very tender, remove braise from heat. Ladel out about 1 cup of the hot broth from the pot into a heatproof glass measure.
- Crack the room-temperature eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk with the lemon juice.
- Slowly whisk the hot broth into the egg mixture until all of it is added.
- Remove the braise from heat. Add the frothy egg/broth/lemon mixutre to the pot and stir it in with a wooden spoon, along with the scallions and dill. Cover and let the braise sit for 5 minutes to thicken.
- Taste and adjust seasoning.
- Serve with crusty bread. Rice is also a nice accompaniment.