I used to hate pork. It was chewy, it was weird, it didn't even have the right color. That's my assessment at age 7 or so, by the way. As I've gotten older (and have experimented, as some of you may remember, with more carnivore-oriented diets, I've not only come to appreciate pork, but have actually come to prefer it to chicken or other "easier" meats.
That's because there are some recipes, like this recipe inspired by the Hungarian recipe for pörkölt, that are just so freaking delicious and easy and good, you can't not love them. Pörkölt is basically a Hungarian way for cooking braised pork. Now, you can use a variety of pork cuts to prepare this, but ideally you want a fattier cut. I make it using neck/shoulder/blade (that back of the neck area - it's a bit tricky accurately translating pork cuts here :D). But probably most fattier cuts will do. I also use meat that is still on the bone, though again, if that's icky for you or you have fussy kids to cook for (or fussy adults, hey, I'm not judging), you can probably use meat that's been separated from the bone.
The bones don't matter that much anyway, because by the time this is done, it will be so freaking tender, it will just melt off the bone.
Apart from being a very tasty meal, it's also a very easy meal in terms of preparation. You are required to be nearby and take a sort of active participation in the cooking, so that's worth remembering.
What do you need? As much pork as you like to cook and a big enough pan. You also need oil/ghee/fat of your choice, carraway seeds, sweet paprika and garlic. That's it.
You want to take the meat out of the fridge at least half an hour before you actually start cooking - moving meat from cold directly to heat causes it to shrivel up and become chewy and not nice. So let it reach room temp.
To prepare the meat, you have literally zero to do. If you like, you can fuss about with it a bit and remove bits you don't like the look of and such. I just took a picture of them while the oil was heating up.
In the big pan (ideally, use a frying pan, but you can also use a pot, if the bottom is large enough for all the meat to lay down), you want to put some oil/fat to heat up and scatter carraway seeds. This is what gives the pork the great aroma - besides, carraway seeds are healthy for the digestion. So you want to leave the seeds to pop and fizzle a bit, but make sure you don't burn them, as that's not what we want. Fire, I'd say, on medium.
Once they've been sizzling for a few minutes, you want to add the meat. As I said, you want to lay them down in the oil and seeds as evenly as possible. Since the cuts I got were particularly large, this wasn't the case, but we made do. Also, be careful dropping the meat into the oil since it can splash quite viciously.
Let the meat cook on one side for 3-4 minutes until a little brown, then flip. Allow this side to cook for 3-4 minutes as well, then add about 100ml of warm water and cover with a big enough lid.
Leave to sit for about 10 mins, or until it starts to sound like the meat is sizzling/being fried. That's why you need to do something around the stove for about an hour, to keep an ear on it. When 10 mins are up (or you hear it sizzling), top up the water and cover again. Repeat this process about 5-6 times.
On the last watering, add a generous splash of sweet paprika. You don't want to add this earlier, because it risks burning the paprika and again, that defeats the purpose. Use the meantime to prepare a side and chop up some garlic, which we'll be adding last, after the stove's been turned off. It's the most flavorful that way.
And there you are. It's a great way to incorporate some red meat into your diet, if that's what you're after that's healthy and doesn't require much cooking skill. Enjoy :)
