By I've been trying to understand what the practical guide is for, exactly. Not who it's for — that I know: the graduates, the people who have done the work and gone back to their own places and are now standing in their own kitchens in February with venison and stored root vegetables and the question of what to make. Not a cookbook exactly, more like a companion. Something you could put on the shelf and pull down when you're uncertain and it would give you not a recipe but a way of thinking.
Danny used to say the best kind of knowledge is the kind that teaches you how to not need it anymore. I've been sitting with that lately. He meant it about fishing — learn the water well enough and the fishing takes care of itself — but I think he meant it more broadly. The guide is trying to do that. Not give people answers but give them the questions in the right order, the way of reading a situation and knowing what it's asking for.
Sixty pages now. I sent it to twelve graduates — people spread across Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, one in New Mexico — and asked them to cook from it for a month and send notes. What's unclear, what's missing, what assumes knowledge they don't have. The responses have been coming in and they're better than I hoped. Grace, who graduated in the third cohort and runs a small program in Tahlequah now, sent four pages of notes that were so precise and so generous that I had to sit down when I finished reading them. She said: "This is the first food writing I've read that treats uncertainty as a technique."
I think that's what I'm trying to do. Make the uncertainty usable. Thirty years of not always knowing what you have and figuring it out — that's a skill, and skills can be transmitted if you find the right form.
After a week of reading Grace’s notes and sitting with the question of how to make uncertainty usable, I wanted to cook something that modeled exactly that — a dish that doesn’t require perfection, just attention. Pork and orzo is that kind of meal: a few honest ingredients, a forgiving technique, and a result that rewards presence in the kitchen more than precision. It felt like the right thing to make on a cold evening when the work of writing has reminded you why the work matters.
Pork and Orzo
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 30 minutes | Total Time: 40 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs pork tenderloin or boneless pork shoulder, cut into 1-inch pieces
- 1 1/2 cups orzo pasta
- 1 medium yellow onion, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 can (14.5 oz) diced tomatoes
- 3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- Fresh parsley, chopped, for serving
- Grated Parmesan, optional, for serving
Instructions
- Brown the pork. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy skillet or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Season the pork pieces with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Add to the pan in a single layer and cook, undisturbed, for 3–4 minutes until browned. Turn and brown the other side, then transfer to a plate.
- Soften the aromatics. Reduce heat to medium. Add the diced onion to the same pan and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4–5 minutes until softened. Add the garlic and oregano and cook for 1 minute more until fragrant.
- Build the braise. Pour in the diced tomatoes with their juices and the chicken broth. Stir to combine, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan.
- Add the orzo. Stir in the orzo and return the browned pork to the pan. Bring to a gentle simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cook uncovered, stirring every few minutes, for 12–15 minutes until the orzo is tender and has absorbed most of the liquid.
- Rest and serve. Remove from heat and let sit for 3–5 minutes — the orzo will continue to absorb liquid as it rests. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve in wide bowls topped with fresh parsley and Parmesan if desired.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 480 | Protein: 38g | Fat: 12g | Carbs: 48g | Fiber: 3g | Sodium: 540mg