>> Ann Taylor Pittman: Tim and I are here to talk about braising today. >> Ann Taylor Pittman: If you think about pot roast it's a classic braised dish. It's a really simple technique.
It's pretty much hands free once you get the pot going so you can walk away from it, and play with your kids or do your taxes. >> Tim: [LAUGH] Right. >> Ann Taylor Pittman: Braising doesn't require a lot of special equipment.
>> Ann Taylor Pittman: In fact, all you really need to braise are a large pot with a tight-fitting lid, a sharp knife for trimming the meat, a set of togs to help you turn the meat, and a wooden spoon for deglazing the pan. And we have a pork shoulder here. And you see a lot of fat on it, and Tim's gonna illustrate how to trim the roast.
>> Tim: You, you don't need to go crazy about getting the fat off because you're not gonna get it all off. And frankly, you don't want to get it all off cuz there is some good flavour in that fat. So.
If you can get off a chunk like that, for instance, and maybe a little chunk over here, too. >> Ann Taylor Pittman: So Tim has started browning the meat in our pan, and what we're working with here is about a six quart Dutch oven. You wanna make sure you have a pan that's large enough to hold all of your ingredients.
It's your meat, and any vegetables that are going in there. But also has enough surface area so that once you add liquid to the pan it doesn't completely submerge all your ingredients. You want your food to cook both in liquid at the bottom, and the steam that will be created on top that really produces the best results.
>> Tim: So we're just browning the meat, which is a key part of the brazing process, is without the meat being brown, you're not gonna have the flavour that you want, really. We're just gonna add the beer in. >> Ann Taylor Pittman: You can braze just in broth, like, commercial chicken broth or beef broth, but adding a little alcohol really does enhance the flavour and gives the dish a lot of complexity.
Some of our recipes use Sherry, some might use wine. [SOUND]. >> Tim: Mm.
>> Ann Taylor Pittman: And in this case we're using beer. >> Tim: A good amount of the alcohol cooks off over time depending upon how long you're gonna cook the dish, and a braised dish that'll go two hours. >> Ann Taylor Pittman: Two hours.
>> Tim: Or so, you're gonna lose a good amount of the alcohol. We've added the meat back to the pan, and you'll see that the meat is not completely submerged, the liquid only comes about maybe halfway up the meat. So we're gonna bring the liquid up to a simmer, and it's important to maintain a simmer, not a boil.
A bubble, break in the surface of that liquid may be every couple of seconds. If you bring the liquid up to a boil, it's going to cook the meat too quickly and cause the proteins to seize and may make for tough meat. So maintain a simmer.
Once you bring the liquid up to a simmer, we're going to cover the pot. >> [SOUND]. >> Ann Taylor Pittman: So the meat has cooked for a couple of hours and Tim's pulled it off onto the cutting board.
>> Tim: And this is actually what we mean by fork tender. Is it just comes off and breaks apart with nothing more than just a fork. Now, that's some nice meat.
By following just a few simple steps, we were able to successfully braise, first thing you want to do is make sure you brown the meat for the best flavour. Second thing is to make sure not to completely submerge the meat in liquid, and then the third thing, you want to simmer and cover that pot tightly. My favourite recipe from the story is our Cuban dish, the Rojo Vieja.
>> Ann Taylor Pittman: What's your favourite?
