Harvest Pork Stew

I bought a lovely butternut squash from Farmer Dave at the Wakefield Farmer’s Market and, while I love butternut squash any which way – roasted, smashed, in a pie, etc., I was in the mood to try a new recipe.  So, I searched around the Internet and found a recipe featuring butternut squash called Harvest Pork Stew.

I hit the jackpot.

This is really good, really easy to make, and can be done in an hour or so before dinnertime, or be started off early to cook in a crockpot.  In addition, since it also calls for apples, onions, potatoes and carrots, it provides the perfect opportunity to highlight all kinds of  fresh fall produce. With the flavors of sage, rosemary, and bay leaves topping it off – this makes for a perfect meal for an autumn evening.  For the perfect complementary dessert, try my simple but delicious Apple Crisp recipe.

I pretty much followed the recipe I found on  Allrecipes.com verbatim. Here it is with any of my changes or clarifications in brackets. [ ]

Note:
To prepare from fresh squash, see How to EASILY Peel Raw Butternut Squash!

Ingredients
•    2 tablespoons butter or oil
•    1 1/2 pounds boneless pork, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
•    2 cloves garlic, minced
•    1 medium onion, chopped
•    3 cups chicken broth
•    1/2 teaspoon salt
•    1/4 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed [I doubled this amount]
•    1/4 teaspoon rubbed sage [I used two fresh leaves]
•    1 bay leaf
•    3 cups frozen, cubed butternut squash   [I used a bit more of fresh squash]
•    2 MacIntosh apples, cored and cubed  [I used 1 1/2 big Macs]
•    2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed (optional)   [I used two medium potatoes]
•   2 cups carrots, peeled and diced (optional)   [I only used two small carrots]
•   [I also added ground  black pepper to taste, maybe 1/2 teaspoon]

Directions
1) Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pork and cook until lightly browned on all sides. Stir in the garlic and onion, and continue to cook until the onion has softened, and the pork is firm, and no longer pink, about 5 minutes.

Onion and garlic just added to lightly browned pork, with pork still a bit pink.

Pork, with onion and garlic cooked until just tender

2) Place the pork and onions into a large saucepan. Pour in the chicken broth, and season with salt, rosemary, sage, and the bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes.

Instead of dried, I minced two fresh sage leaves and crushed dried rosemary in my suribachi to make 1/2 a teaspoon.

Ready for the first 20 minute simmer

3)  Stir in the butternut squash, apples, potatoes, and carrots. Return to a simmer, then cook, uncovered until the squash and apples are tender, about 20 minutes. Remove the bay leaf and serve.

Three HEAPING cups of cubed squash. The rest went into the fridge.

Two HEAPING cups of cubed apple. I saved the rest for later.

Two HEAPING cups of potato

Just a cup of diced carrots

Ready for the last 20 minute simmer

Slow Cooker Method – I have not tried this, but I bet it is just as good!
Lightly brown the pork in the butter or oil and cook until firm and opaque. Add to the slow cooker along with remaining ingredients. Cook on High for 1 hour, then reduce heat to Low and simmer 4 hours, or until tender.

This recipe was truly a winner.  Steve and I both loved it, it stretched the meat, and was full of tasty and nutritious vegetables.   Next I am going to try it with chicken.  And, I bet the slow cook method would be good with beef.  Post a message if you try the chicken or beef before I do!

Update – If you are in a big hurry, buy the peeled squash halves at the grocery store.  The folks at America’s Test Kitchens recommend such in a pinch, but they do NOT recommend the peeled and cut up product.  However, from a local market that does it themselves, such as Wakefield MA’s Farmland, it is a totally acceptable choice, in my opinion. 

Stone Soup with Chicken

Leftover chicken, leftover brown rice, leftover whole wheat spaghetti…well, the pasta will have to be used for something else, but I just made a great soup with a bunch of leftovers.

From a chicken carcass to finished soup took just a bit more than an hour, but that is because the time included making the stock.  If I had used stock from my freezer or a can/box, it would have been under 20 minutes.

If you are making your own stock, start by puitting  the water in the pressure cooker (or stock pot if you are going to do a longer simmer) and turn on the burner. That way, you get a head start bringing everything to pressure (or to a simmer).  Also, if you are using anything from the freezer, pop them into the microwave to defrost a bit if you want to save additional time.

[NOTE:  you can start with frozen everything - bone/carcass and veggies if you are not pressed for time.  However, the pressure cooker could take 30 minutes to come to pressure if using items directly from the freezer.]

This time, I used the chicken carcass from the French Chicken in a Pot I made a few days back.  First, I put 7 cups of water in the pressure cooker and turned the burner on high.  Then, I picked off all of the meat that was easy to remove, leaving the rest to pick off after the “second cooking.”  Then, along with the bones, I tossed in a carrot, a small stalk of celery, a bay leaf, 6-8 peppercorns, 1/2 an onion, and a crushed garlic clove.  I let it cook 25 minute once to pressure and then turned off the burner, letting the pressure come down naturally.  [Note: if in a hurry, you can bring the pressure down quickly by putting the pot under cold running water.]

Once I strained the stock and picked the test of the meat off the bones, I brought the stock to a simmer in a pot.  Here is where you can add whatever strikes your fancy.  Basically, you want to add any seasonings that simmering will bring out first.  Then, once to a simmer, add raw rice  or noodles, if using, before adding the veggie or veggies that take longer to cook.  Then,  add the veggies that cook more quickly, then anything already cooked once the all the former are tender.  The final step is to season to taste.

Today, I started with a de-seeded and sliced up a  salsa chili pepper (we have a bunch growing in our bedroom) that was red and starting to wrinkle and then added a few veggies once the stock was simmering,  in this case, the last carrot and last chunk of daikon radish in my fridge, both sliced thinly.  Once they got soft, I added chopped fresh parsley and about a cup of snow peas that I discovered, just in time, in my vegetable bin. Last, I added my leftover cooked rice and  cooked chicken from teh carcass, as well as the meat I got off both the turkey neck and chicken neck  that I used to make stock the other day for the Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup.

The final touch was a bunch of freshly ground black pepper and a tablespoon of tamari, just to round the flavor out.    Oh no!  I forgot to take pictures and we already had lunch – two servings each so there is not much left:

Not much was left!

My final advice – try the French Chicken in a Pot recipe, too!  Someday I’ll post about it, but you can link to it above.

Roasted Tomato and Red Pepper Soup

This is fabulous!  I’ve been meaning to try making this from scratch for ages.  It was worth the wait.

I found a number of variations online, but you don’t need to go fancy for this soup.   A special thanks to Dennis Caswell for the recipe on his Rock ‘N Roll Kitchen blog.  You know, I just love the Internet.  15 years ago, who would think that anyone with 1/2 a brain and a computer could easily find recipes shared by a complete stranger living in Great Britain?

Here’s how I made it:

That’s a bit over a pound of tomatoes and closer to 2 lbs of red peppers.

I just sliced the tomatoes in half, seeded and halved the peppers,  halved one onion, and peeled 6-8 cloves of garlic. I then rubbed them with olive oil and sprinkled with dried basil.

Ready to roast!

I started them off at 275 degrees, but it was slow going, so I upped it to 400 at the end.  Different recipes give different temperatures and lengths of time, but figure 20-45 minutes depending. In the end, you want them to look like this:

Roasted!

Well, it is a little hard to tell in this picture.  And, FYI – I flipped the tomatoes part-way through.  But, you basically want the skins split and wrinkled on the red veggies, and it is fine if they get a bit charred.

Next, I peeled off the really tough outer layer of the onion halves.  The garlic was a bit tough, too but it ended up not causing an problem with the soup’s texture.  however, next time I will roast the garlic with the skin still on and then peel.

I then put the roasted veggies in a pot with 3 cups of puoltry/veggie stock.*   I think it was three cups – perhaps 3 1/2.  I know I have three cups left:

The rest of the homemade stock

Well, lets go for 3 cups and add more if you want a thinner texture.  I used 8 cups of water when I made the stock that morning but seemed to lose more liquid than usual.  See below for how I made the stock.

The final step was to use my handy-dandy new immersion blender and puree the whole lot right in the pot.  You can also put part of the stock  and the veggies into a regular blender and then add back to the rest of the stock.  Then, I seasoned with salt and freshly ground pepper.  heated it up, and that was it!  I hear it freezes well, but I think we will be eating it all in a short time.

Yum! (And, YES, I LOVE my new range!)

So, there it is.  A lovely soup.  It would be great served chilled in the summer, also.  Now I want to try the variation I found called: “Roasted Red Pepper Tomato Soup With Onions, Garlic, Garbanzo Beans & Oh Why Not? Artichokes” Click HERE to see the recipe on the blog Farmgirl Fare.

*And, for the stock:  from the freezer, the neck and innards from one turkey and one chicken, three corncobs (Just pop them into the freezer after you eat the kernels off – the BEST for stock!) a handful of asparagus stems, and, from the fridge, some leftover raw kale, a stick of celery, a carrot or two, half and onion, a bay leaf, and…probably a few cloves of garlic – I can’t remember.  Into the pressure cooker with 8 cups of water it went for 30 minutes after it came to pressure.  NOTE:  you can use whatever you want – more poultry parts, just veggies, whatever.  However, I highly recommend corn cobs in all stock.  They add a great flavor!

So, that’s it for now.   Thanks for reading. 

Rosemary Cauliflower Soup

Get ready to die, as in “this is to die for!”  A BIG thank you to Béatrice Peltre, the author of La Tartine Gourmande.  I am not even going to post the recipe ingredients or procedure here,  just the link to the details.  If you love to cook, you should check out her blog!

Rosemary Cauliflower Soup.  Just click the name to go to the recipe.

This soup is exquisite enough for company or a very special romantic dinner for two.  It is also quite suitable as the main course or vegetable of a quick weekday meal.  Truly a winner.

The total prep and cooking time is not much over an hour,  with more cooking than prep going on, leaving plenty of time to prepare and/or cook  the rest of the meal, whether it be something along the line of the rosemary chicken leg quarters I paired with my first batch, or perhaps just some substantial  crusty bread and a light dessert.

Here are a few pictures of my first time making this soup, followed by the results of my 2nd go-round when I used a homemade but not recipe-specific vegetable broth and a combination, about 1/2 each, of broccoli and cauliflower.

The ingredients for the broth.

This made a most wonderful broth or stock.  And, even for those who think they don’t like fennel, you won’t dislike this.  The fennel adds depth without contributing a specifically “fennel” taste.

Main Soup Ingredients

Just a picture showing the amounts/proportions.  Of  course, for soups, casseroles, and the like, proportions are not as crucial as they are when baking.

1st saute

Shallots add such a nice color to things, along with a smoother texture than most types of  onions provide.

2nd batch of ingredients done!

It is time to add the broth when the bottom is getting a bit browned.

Ready to simmer for a bit.

This is the last picture I took when making this soup for the first time.  I am hoping to remember to take a picture after finishing up my second batch, which I have been making as I FINALLY write up and post this recipe on my blog!  Of course, it will look different, since I used half broccoli…

Well, here is the picture:

the 2nd time - broccoli and cauliflower with standard broth base

Well, it looks pretty and all, but…no way as good as when I followed the original recipe.  FYI, I had lots of both leftover broccoli and cauliflower florets from the veggie tray we did for the Wakefield UU Church auction last week, which is why I used both veggies.  Here is my take:

I added the requisite chopped fresh parsley (about a HEAPING tablespoon) salt (1 tsp) black pepper (1/2 tsp freshly ground) after adding a tsp of salt, and “dash” of nutmeg (about 1/4 tsp freshly grated) PLUS a tsp of coriander power to make up for not using the original vegetable broth recipe and…certainly pleasant and edible, but NOT to die for.  To live forso as  to enjoy, yes, but NOT the great shakes of the original recipe.    …  Okay, I am letting it stay at just below a simmer on the stove for a bit.  Then I will see if I can fix it up a bit….  1/2 an hour or so later…

Hey!  It’s very good after some low temp simmering, beyond the just “pleasant” flavor.  Yes, the broccoli is too strong for this recipe as to getting the exquisite results obtained from the original version using just cauliflower. But, I really like that this is a “creamy” soup that does not use dairy for that special texture.  Nothing against dairy from me, but it is nice to have a way to prepare a veggie dish or soup that has a comfort food taste and texture without the usual comfort food fat and calories – or lactose tolerance issues.

Anyway – this recipe is a keeper for me, in both the original and experimental formats.