Bacon

The technique of tempering—heating spices gently in oil or ghee to release their essential oils—is commonly used in Indian cooking to build layers of flavor. Here, sweet and peppery mango teams up with pork for a gentle simmer in the spice-laden oil.

Just a tablespoon of Onwuachi’s Pepper Sauce brings plenty of heat, and tenderizing flavor, to this reverse braised pork shoulder. As the liquid, and delicious fat from the pork, cook off, the resulting Geera Pork is coated in a richly seasoned paste, perfect for eating with rice or leftover bara flatbreads.

When I was younger, one of my favorite things was any kind of “stuffed” food. Stuffed chicken breasts. Stuffed mushrooms. Stuffed peppers, grape leaves, pork. You get the idea. There was something magical about cutting into one thing only to find something altogether different on the inside. Alas, many stuffed foods have been consigned to the “old-fashioned” category. But I’m convinced they deserve to return to the table. Picture a stuffed chicken breast (like this delicious recipe stuffed with couscous and Moroccan spices), cut into rounds that show off the multicolored stuffing inside, fanned across the plate—I’m pretty sure no one would reject that as dated. Or how about beautiful, deep green Swiss chard leaves (like this recipe from Justin Chapple) filled with a wildly savory ground pork and rice stuffing, just begging to be eaten. But today I have a recipe for you that could hardly be easier or less intimidating—stuffed pork loin. It’s easy enough to make for your family on a Tuesday night and beautiful enough to save for guests on Saturday. Pork loin, not to be confused with the much smaller tenderloin, is fairly lean, very inexpensive, and easy to work with. And the best part: it requires only three very simple cuts to butterfly it in preparation for stuffing. (See my recipe below for specific directions.) The stuffing is an herb pesto, which can be changed depending on what’s in season or what you have available in your refrigerator that you need to use up. My recipe leans on tarragon, chives, basil, parsley, scallions, and lemon zest to form a light, bright pesto that will flavor the loin from the inside. But feel free to use whatever you have on hand. No scallions? Use a couple of tablespoons of minced onion. For the herbs, use a mix of whatever you have on hand that’s green and soft, like arugula or even kale; you’ll need about 2½ to 3 cups of leafy, flavorful greens. (You could even substitute about ½ to ¾ cup store-bought pesto, in a pinch.) For a bit of luxury, I’ve added some prosciutto, but feel free to omit it or use whatever thinly sliced cured meat you have around. All you’ll need to do is open up the pork loin, pound it to an even thickness, salt the meat, paint it with the pesto, top the pesto with the prosciutto and cheese, roll it back up, tie it, and roast it. The whole procedure takes about an hour, and the results are delicious—and anything but outdated.

At Beringer, chef Alex Hrabovsky leans on savory pork drippings and lush Merlot to balance the sweet-tart strawberries in this rich sauce for pork tenderloin. A gentle finish in the oven keeps the pan drippings from over-reducing.

Briny olives and sweet raisins give this wild mash-up of picadillo and dolma glorious brightness, while cinnamon lends a warmth that makes it subtly wintry. Serve these steamed logs with herbed rice, black beans, and plenty of vinegary hot sauce.

Schnitzel has become a regular weeknight fix in my house. It’s quick and easy to prepare, but it also has a certain something extra. Not to mention how stress-relieving it can be to pound out a pork cutlet at the end of a long day. The idea for using crushed pretzels for the breadcrumb coating came to me years ago when I was working on my first cookbook, Pretzel Making at Home, and I had a surplus of homemade hard pretzels on my hands. I turned them into pie crust; I baked them into cookies; I used them as a calamari coating; I even retooled Austria’s national dish into a pretzel-crusted version. Pretzels deliver an extra crunch, and that curious alkaline flavor that can only be described as “pretzely.” On a trip to Germany many years ago, I had a thing with schnitzel. I ordered it at almost every restaurant I visited to try it with the various sauces and accompaniments. Potatoes and spaetzle are of course delicious, but my favorite pairing was the contrast of a bright green salad with the crispy, pan-fried cutlets. At home, that may be arugula, simply dressed with lemon and olive oil, but in winter, I find this heartier shaved brussels sprouts salad with mustard dressing and sharp pecorino cheese perfectly fits the bill. Let’s talk about pan-frying. It can be intimidating, but the simple thing to remember is to get the oil hot enough so that a few crumbs sizzle on contact. Be patient and wait for this to happen, and your crust will turn out crisp rather than oil-soaked and soggy. You also want to avoid getting it so hot that the oil starts to smoke, because that results in off flavors. Speaking of smoke points, it’s a good thing to fry in olive oil. It’s a myth that extra-virgin olive oil shouldn’t be used for frying, or cooked at all, for that matter. On the contrary, it’s a stable oil with a high-enough smoke point to make it ideal for pan-frying, and it’s better here than other oils for both taste and nutrition. A few pats of butter make it even better. As for what to drink with your Pretzel Schnitzel, an everyday-priced Grüner Veltliner from Austria is the ideal, if somewhat expected, choice for pairing, with its refreshing tartness and notes of fresh green herbs and citrus zest. It’s the perfect lift for a comfortingly crispy, just-rich-enough weeknight dish.