Beer-Braised Pork with Bacon

Pork roast and bacon? Um, yeah, didn't have to think twice about making this one.

I was a little leary about the beer. I'm not a fan of beer. At all. A helpful guy down at the local Trader Joe's recommended Black Toad and fortunately for me, it turned out to be a good choice. Did you know you don't have to buy an entire sixer if you don't want to? That was cool. Also, I didn't hunt for applewood smoked bacon. I just bought whatever was behind the butcher's counter at Stater Bros.

Beer-Braised Pork with Bacon

8 oz. applewood smoked bacon, chopped

2 1/2 to 3 lb. boneless pork shoulder roast (3 to 3 1/2 inches thick)

3/4 tsp coarse salt, divided

1/2 tsp dried sage

1/2 tsp pepper, divided

1 large onion, coarsely chopped

4 large shallots, halved
6 large garlic cloves, halved

3/4 c dark beer or nonalcoholic beer

1/2 c lower-sodium beef broth

6 new red potatoes, unpeeled, quartered

3 carrots, cut into 2-inch pieces

3 parsnips, sliced (1/2 inch)

2 ribs celery, sliced (1 inch)

Heat oven to 325ºF.

Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until browned and crisp; drain on paper towels. Reserve drippings in skillet.

Cook pork in drippings over medium-high to medium heat 5 to 6 minutes or until browned on all sides.

Reserve 2 teaspoons of the drippings in skillet; discard remaining drippings.

Place pork in shallow roasting pan large enough to hold pork surrounded by vegetables. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, sage and 1/4 teaspoon of the pepper.

Cook onion, shallots and garlic in drippings over medium heat 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Scatter around pork.

Add beer to skillet; boil over high heat 2 minutes or until reduced to 1/2 cup, stirring to scrape up any browned bits from bottom of skillet.

Add broth; bring to a boil. Pour around pork; cover tightly with foil.

Bake 1 hour 20 minutes.

Scatter potatoes, carrots, parsnips and celery around pork; sprinkle vegetables with remaining 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper.

Reserve 1/3 cup bacon for garnish; sprinkle remaining bacon over vegetables. Bake, covered, an additional 1 hour or until pork is fork-tender and pale pink in center. Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.

Spoon pan juices over pork; surround with vegetables. Microwave reserved 1/3 cup bacon 30 seconds or until warm; sprinkle over pork.

Ease: Very easy. The most difficult part was avoiding bacon splatters while cooking the bacon and browning the roast.

Time: about 3 hours total. I saved a little bit of time by only prepping the bacon, onions and shallots at the beginning. After the pork went into the oven for the first baking time, I prepped the rest of the vegetables.

Flavor: fantastic! I'll definitely be repeating this the next time a hunk of pork is on sale. Totally worth the time and cost.

Cost:

• bacon: $1.64
• pork butt roast: $4.62
• onion: $0.99/lb
• shallots: $2.29/lb
• beer: $1/12 oz
• red potatoes: $0.59/lb
• carrots: $1.39/2 lb
• parsnips: $1.39/lb
• celery: $0.79

Total: $14.70 or $2.45 per serving.

No doubt about it, we're having this again!

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