Rosemary and Cherry Pork Shoulder With Lemon Green Beans, Emmenthaler Cauliflower, and Rhubarb Compote

I dump them into a large saucepan with my honey, sugar, and about a half cup of water — and a dash of salt for good measure. I set this to boil.

Add 1/2 of my dried cherries, mixing well to submerge them in the simmering liquids…

I transfer the compote to a small bowl, and set into my fridge to chill until service. I could have done this yesterday, too, and it will hold for a week or so. Clayton’s gonna try it as the jelly component of his PB&Js this week.

I dice 1/2 my white onion, peel some more sprigs of rosemary off the stem, and gather the rest of my chopped cherries. After sprinkling the underside of my shoulder (into which I ended up cutting another pocket, to stuff more stuff) with salt and pepper (generously), I pack as much of my onions, rosemary, and cherries into the fold as I can …

I sprinkle the outside of my roast with salt and pepper before laying my bundle on a rack set over a foiled over cookie sheet. This yummy pig packet goes into a 350 degree oven for the next 2.5 hours, and it fills the house with the most amazing aroma – sweet and succulent and meaty and fruity, oh my.

Next up is my hericot vert. I have two of these bean slicers, and they are wonderful. I’ve used them before, here, here, and here, for starters. I wanted to buy a few of these tools the other day, one each for my mom, my sister, my friend Tom, but the only place in town I know to get them — this lovely little kitchen store in Concord, MA, The Concord Shop – was sold out. On the other hand, I went to a Williams and Sonoma, thinking of course they’d have them, only to be rather superciliously put down by the clerk there (really? you’re a retail salesman in Tampa, Florida dude — you’re not in Paris), saying that he’d never heard of them. Humph. His loss — my table’s gain. You snip off the twig tip with the little blade at the end (which I sort of cut off in this picture, sorry), and then run the beans through — shaving the strings off — the vertical slicer to split each pod lengthwise.

For a few minutes, right before service, I sautee them with 1tbs butter and lemon zest in my hot wok.

So I decide to segregate the white bits from the multi-colored bits. This I reject as a way of life among people — but for cauliflower, which will happily comingle later, both on my plate and in my belly, this initial separation is OK. I set my bamboo steamers over hot water and cook my florets through to easily pierced with a long-tined fork.

Starting with 2tbs butter, which I melt in my large skillet…

And sautee them until just softened and fragrant.

Shredded Emmenthaler cheese.

My roast is tender and perfectly cooked, with the skin nicely charred and crispy from the last few minutes of heat. I carve into it, reveling in the thick veins of cherry rosemary running through its center.