“A la vigneronne” is the term given to dishes which include grapes or wine or are considered more autumn meals. I would characterize this dish as both wonderfully hearty and tasty. It’s simple to prepare and it makes you feel as if you should be having dinner somewhere deep in the French countryside. To me, it’s an ideal recipe for the colder months so having said, I wanted to prepare this while the weather was still a bit chilly (we had a touch of snow last weekend) and before those hot, sweltering, suffocating summer months descend upon us. Those are memorable days indeed when we are truly thankful to see the barometer finally reach a cool 100 degrees in the shade and the humidity wraps around us like a rug and our cities turn into heat islands and we become almost zomby-like staggering from bus to metro to work lost in our own private concrete jungles. I must say, that snow is looking pretty good right now.
With the coming summer months I will attempt to focus on lighter meals and colder drinks although there is simply no guarantee. In any event, I raise my glass to Madame, une vigneronne de caractère.
Pork Roast in a Wine Sauce “Vigneronne”
Serves 4
Ingredients
1.5 – 2 lbs pork roast
2 medium sized onions
3 carrots
2 cloves of garlic
1 bouquet garni (bay leaf, thyme, parsley)
2 tablespoons of vinegar
1/2 bottle of red wine
2 tablespoons of margerine
3 tablesponns of beurre
salt and fresh cracked pepper
Directions:
Open the bottle of Nuit-Saint-George before meal time.
Brown the roast in half the butter making sure your brown it on all sides.
Remove the roast and set aside, lightly brown the sliced carrots, the onion and the garlic thinly sliced in the pan with the remaining butter.
Add salt and pepper, vinegar and the red wine (basic house varietal)then the bouquet garni.
Add back the roast back into the pan, add the remaining butter and cover and cook on medium heat for 50 minutes to an hour.
Remove the roast from the pan and thicken the sauce as needed.
Serve the roast pork sliced in a large serving dish with the sauce and the new potatoes.
Wine Paring Suggestions:
Nuit-Saint-George (Burgundy)
Le Clos De Vougeot rouge (Burgundy)
Côtes-du-Rhône-Villages (Southern Côtes du Rhône region)
Saint Emilion (Bordeaux)