BON APPÉTIT’s Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder with Braised White Beans

So I made this.

It was F-ing fan-tastic.

How fantastic was it? My husband ate beans. My, “I don’t like beans. No I won’t try a bite without making a sour face, or faking a smile, or pretending to choke” anti-bean husband ate the beans. All of them. Toddler also ate the beans. Only 5 or 6 of them, but still. Victory!

Full Plate

Toddler, meet bean.

SO THERE.

He also ate the spinach I made, and didn’t pick around the tomatoes in the beans. Is this recipe worth the however many hours? Yes. Yes it is. (Can you tell we’ve watched Zootopia about 7000 times with our toddler?)

We all know I’m impaired when it comes to making a recipe exactly the way it’s written so here’s what I changed:

• Had to sub in cannelloni beans because I couldn’t find the other ones.
• Used a whole bottle of white wine. Because three cups of wine is basically a whole bottle. Everyone in the pool!
• Used Pinot noir red wine vinegar because it sounded like a good idea, dammit.
• Didn’t read properly and tore up all 8 bay leaves to season the pork with overnight. Don’t worry, I had extra to use for the braising liquid too. A little extra bay didn’t ruin anything.
• Couldn’t find juniper berries in any of the stores I went to, and I gave up after two because it was cold (18 degrees whoop whoop) and I was wearing flip-flops. And maybe a t-shirt. Sorry mom.
• I forgot to wipe out the pot between browning the pork and adding the braising garlic/peppercorns/sage sprigs/bay leaves. I did, however, remove the crispy brown leaves that fell off the pork while it browned.
• When I made the spinach it was just straight up spinach wilted with a splash of olive oil. There’s enough garlic in the other two components (pork and beans) to sustain your garlic craving for the next week or so.
• I finished the beans under the broiler for a couple of minutes because I wanted the garlic to be brown. My beans split, but whatever they were still delicious.
• I also sautéed some baby bella mushrooms for a side because I’m currently obsessed.

Here’s the pretty part – pictures:

Before

Fresh Out of the Oven

After a Stir

Why yes, my pork shoulder was almost too big for my pot. Are you surprised? You shouldn’t be.

Brown baby, brown.

Halfway done.

And a bonus picture of spinach because I never get tired of the fact that an overflowing pan like this cooks down to two handfuls of greens. SCIENCE!

Slow-Cooked Pork Shoulder With Braised White Beans