In Sung Dynasty (a Chinese imperial dynasty lasting from AD 960 - 1279) texts, the dragon is described as having the head of an ox, muzzle of a donkey, eyes of a shrimp, horns of a deer, body of a serpent covered with fish scales, and feet of a phoenix. The dragon usually clutches a pearl symbolic of its super-natural powers. Invariably accompanied by thunder and rain, dragons move like lightning and whirlwinds - - all powerful yet totally unpredictable.
But this year in terms of herbs is the year of the Rose. The International Herb Society selects a special herb each year and this one is the year of the rose, so look for extra special notes on our love of eating roses - we like to make rose tea and also rose jam - but that's another blog - they won't be blooming around here 'til June!
For now, we'd like to say Happy New Year to all our followers and wish you the best of luck in the upcoming year! There are all kinds of food/good luck traditions associated with the new year and since my husband and I have a German background, we go with what we know - it is good luck in our heritage to eat pork and sauerkraut on 01-01-0-whatever!!
For years, we'd just hung out, usually hung over, on New Year's Day until about 15 or so years ago when our brother-in-law mentioned this lucky meal that must be consumed on the first day of each year. He was working in his family re-upholstering business at the time with a couple of bachelor uncles who cooked lunch for them each day at work, (I know, how special is that!) so Rick was around great food all the time and enjoyed cooking it, as well as eating it. He went into great detail of how he made the lucky new year meal and to this day, we have said "I want to make sure we're lucky" so have adapted this meal to our new year's day tradition.
What we need:
3# pork shoulder roast, (I use,bone in)
Salt
Pepper
Rosemary or Sage, optional
2-3 large garlic cloves, peeled and cut into 12-15 slivers
1 quart of sauerkraut (I use my own homemade)
2-3 onions, sliced
oil as needed
How we do it:
Poke a lot of holes in your roast with a paring knife and poke in the garlic slivers. Then, give the roast a good rub with lots of salt, pepper and finely chopped herbs. I heat a bit of oil in a cast iron Dutch oven to shimmery and then place in the roast, and sear it on 4 all sides.
When you get to the second side, throw in the onions along side and cook them to translucent, stirring to make sure they don't burn. Once the onions are cooked and all sides of the pork are seared, add your quart of sauerkraut and then rinse the jar almost full with water and pour over. Cover with an oven safe lid or foil and put into a 350° oven for a few hours, checking now and then for the pork to begin to get tender. This is a great meal to have on the day after New Year's, because it really does the work itself. You can just lie on the couch and read and savor your last day of the holiday season, or you can busy yourself taking down some of the decorations, or if it's between rain storms like it was here yesterday, you can go out and rake some leaves you didn't get to the year before.
Mashed potatoes with this meal is a MUST! So, when you notice after several hours that the pork is "beginning to break", turn the oven down to 300°, peel a few russets, cube and boil in salt water til done (about 20 minutes). Then, mash them with a bit of butter and milk to the consistency you like and dinner is ready!
Applesauce is a great accompaniment to this meal if you have some around! And, really, when I make sauerkraut and sausage (just heat in the skillet for 20-30 minutes) I always fine chop a nice apple, peel on, to cook in with the sauerkraut for a little added sweetness.
It's great comfort food and our lives have been pretty darn lucky, so I urge you to try this tradition on New Year's Day, or just any old day!!
- Posted by Janet
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