Sunday Cooking - Skillet Poached Eggs and Braised Pork with Dijon Lime

Yeah, I stayed in all day today. So you got my tweet this morning about breakfast, right? The skillet poached eggs and potatoes that may be one of my more clever (and completely unintentional) one-pot meals.

Skillet Poached Eggs and Potatoes with Bacon Gravy

Four strips of thick-cut bacon
1 medium Russet potato
1/2 medium yellow onion
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 eggs
1 scallion

1. Cook off four strips of bacon. Remove from the pan and drain on a paper towel. Reserve 2T bacon grease in the skillet
2. Dice the potatoes into medium cubes. Dice the onion similarly. Throw them in a pan on medium heat with the bacon grease. Salt and pepper to taste and to get the onions sweating.
2a. Eat one piece of bacon.
3. Add in 1/2 the chicken stock and deglaze the pan. Stir through and cover. Cook for 10 minutes.
4. Add the remainder of the chicken stock and stir through. Form two small wells in the pan and crack the eggs into the wells. Cover and continue cooking until the whites of the eggs are opaque.
4a. Eat another piece of bacon. Crumble the other two so you have some left for the garnish.
5. With a spatula, scoop out the eggs and surround with the potatoes. Scatter crumbled bacon and scallions over the dish.

Where's the gravy? Yeah, that's the remaining thick sauce formed by the chicken stock, the bacon grease, and the starch from the potatoes as they break down during cooking. With 1/2 cup total chicken stock, you end up having the gravy covering every inch of potato and surrounding your poached eggs. If the pan starts looking dry at any point, just add in a few more tablespoons of chicken stock.

Braised Pork Shoulder with Dijon/Lime Sauce

Then there was dinner. Pulled some pork shoulder out of the freezer yesterday with the intention of cooking it. Lucky for you and my belly that my laziness gene kept me home today and that it also stopped short of "oh, I can just nuke something today."

Had some limes in the fridge that needed to get used. Randomly picked up some Dijon on my last trip to the store. Ended up being useful. I knew I wanted the limes. You remember citrus and pork, yeah?

2lbs pork shoulder on the bone
1 1/2 yellow onions, sliced in half moons
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken stock
Juice from three limes, separated
salt and pepper to taste
2T olive oil
2T dijon mustard
1T cider vinegar

1. Salt and pepper the pork and brown it on all sides in the oil. Remove it from the pan.
2. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.
3. Saute the onions and garlic over medium heat until the onions just start to wilt. 4. Add the juice of two limes.
5. Add the pork back on top of the onions. Pour in the stock and bring to a boil.
6. Cover and place in the oven for 90 minutes. If the meat is pulling away from the bone you're ready. If not, back in the oven and check it after 20 minutes.
7. Remove the pork from the pan to a cutting board.
8. Add the dijon, cider vinegar, and juice from the remaining lime to the pan and place it over medium heat. Stir everything through and reduce the heat to low. Simmer until the sauce thickens.

I served the pork over a toasted English muffin 'cause I didn't feel like making rice and there wasn't anything else to put it over. You could just put it on a plate and sop it with Wonderbread if you wanted. 'Course it'd taste better for you and me both if I'd had the inclination to make some bread today.

All in all a good day. Shopping and more green stuff tomorrow. Any suggestions? I have thoughts of local zucchini gratins.