No matter how much you eat, you won't get drunk. I promise.
Recipe #27: beer pork butt with vegetables

Once, in my room, I thought I'd smelled something good from the kitchen. Curious, I went over there, and the stronger the smell got. I then noticed that it came from the oven. I couldn't open it, so I asked my mother. She said she was making beer pork butt with vegetables.

"What? Beer? I thought you don't like beer? Why are you using it to cook?"

She said mysteriously, "You will know when it appears on the table."

When that happened, the smell was so good and strong that the entire street must have smelled it (people have often asked us what we were cooking since they always smelled good things coming from our house). Although I do not drink beer either (I had heard when I was little that it was bitter). I took out a piece of pork with chopsticks and tried it. It was tender and just delicious. I cooould not put down my chopsticks. Apparently, the alcohol evaporates after cooking and all that remains is the aroma of the wheat.

This recipe is not hard at all. It just takes time.

Ingredients

1. 2 lbs. pork butt
2. 1 medium-sized onion, sliced
3. 4-5 cloves of garlic
4. 4 stalks of celery
5. 1 lb. potatoes, cut into small chunks
6. 1-2 carrots, sliced
7. 8 oz. button mushrooms
8. 2 Tbsp. oil
9. 1 bottle dark beer
10. Salt and pepper; additional salt to taste

Directions

1. Cut pork butt into 1" x 1" chunks.
2. Rub salt and pepper onto pork pieces so that all of them are covered.
3. Heat oil in a saucepan and put pork in.
4. Lightly fry the pork on high heat.
5. When golden-brown, flip the pork. Using this method, cook until all sides are golden grown.
6. Remove pork and put into Dutch oven.
7. Using remaining oil, saute the onion on medium-high heat. After 2-3 minutes, add garlic. When until onions are half-soft and have a slightly caramelized color, place onions into Dutch oven with pork.
8. Add beer to Dutch oven; when it boils, put on cover and cook in oven at 250 F for 3 hours.
9. While waiting, remove the tough fibers from the celery and cut stalks an an angle with 1" thickness.
10. After three hours, remove Dutch oven and add mushrooms, celery, tomatoes and salt. On a stove, heat until it boils. Put back in oven for about 30-45 minutes.

Tips

1. Normal pork is deep-fried to seal the surface so that the juices are retained. However, this makes the outer meat too hard. My mother uses a normal amount of oil to seal the meat, so that it is tender but will not fall apart.
2. The vegetables are up to you. You can use tomatoes, less potatoes, etc. The flavors usually mix pretty well.
3. If you don't have a Dutch oven, you can substitute it with a heavy, stainless-steel covered casserole. If you don't have that either, you can use the method described in the previous recipe.
4. My mother picked the Spaten beer from Germany. It's been made since 1397!