Pork & Butternut Squash Stew

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Winter is not settling down for a long nap here on the north coast. It's cold, rainy, foggy and definitely winter-y. What better comfort on such a day than to walk into the house and be greeted by the smells of a stew simmering away on the stove? Well, maybe curling up with a good book, a hot cup of tea, and a blanket tucked around you while those heady aromas waft around your head, huh? Better than visions of sugar plums.

This recipe doesn't have exact measurements, though I'll try to approximate. I just started with the pork and the butternut squash and went from there, adding this and that until I felt it was done.

2 pounds boneless pork loin or 2 pounds boneless pork loin chops, about 1 inch thick, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large, sweet onion, chopped into 1/2 inch dice
7 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped fine
1 medium to large butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut into 1 inch cubes
2 apples, peeled, cored and cut into 1/2 inch dice
2 cans of your favorite white beans, drained
2 cups or so of chicken stock or a combination of liquids (in addition to the chicken stock, I used some Six Rivers Brewery Autumn Ale that was left over and topped it off with some apple cider)
2 bay leaves
4 fresh sage leaves, roughly chopped
ground cloves (especially if you use apple cider as part of your liquid)
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet over med-high heat, brown the meat all over in batches in a little olive oil. As each batch is browned, transfer it to a stew pot (I used a crock pot this time as I was going to leave the house as soon as the stew was assembled and wanted it to cook unattended).
Adding a little more olive oil and lowering the heat to medium, cook the onions until tender and golden. Add to the stew pot. Cook the garlic 2-3 minutes, taking care not to burn it and add it to the pot.
Deglaze the skillet with a bit of liquid, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom. Pour all of it into the pot.
To the pot add:
cubed squash
diced apple
1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cloves
coarsly chopped sage leaves
bay leaves
the white beans

Mix all this together gently, adding enough liquid that will allow the meat to braise and all the ingredients to fall together into a stew. Add salt and pepper to taste, bring to a boil then reduce heat to a simmer. Cover pot and simmer for about 2 hours or until pork is fall apart tender.

Meyer Lemon Curd

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My sister brought Meyer lemons from her tree when she and hubby Mark came over for Thanksgiving this year. They have since been sitting prettily in a white bowl waiting for me to be inspired. This morning, there it was - a hankering for lemon curd.

I feel pressed to preface the publishing of this recipe with telling you about my predeliction for desserts. I love them. Not candy, mind you. But cakes, pies, cookies, puddings, creams, ganache, cheesecakes, curds, the list goes on. The rub here is that I don't do well with sugar, to say nothing of fat. Well, who does? Maybe marathon runners. Or those especially tedious people who can take just one bite and be satisfied.

When low-carbing became the "in" diet, I'd finally found a way to control my intake of sugar, lower my intake of fat, and severely curtail my consumption of "bad carbs", which, in a nutshell amounts to anything white, while still satisfying my craving for tasty desserts. It works for me. Now the low carb craze has gone the way of so many diets (most likely due to tremendous amounts of money thrown into advertising campaigns to denounce it) and it has become passe to even use the phrase.

So, I won't. I'll just tell you that I try to cut down on sugar, fat, flour, dairy and processed foods (especially those nasty trans-fats) in my diet. It's not rocket science; too much of any of those things is not good for you.

Herewith is my version of lemon curd. Made with the Meyers my sister brought me. Thank you Cynthia!

Low Sugar, Low(er) Fat Meyer Lemon Curd
5 tablespoons of butter (I said "lower" fat, not "no" fat)
zest of 2 Meyer lemons
juice of same lemons (mine yielded 1/2 cup of juice)
1 cup egg substitute
1/2 cup Splenda/Sugar Blend

In a medium saucepan, melt butter over very low heat until all solids are gone. Immediately remove from heat. Turn burner to simmer. Off the heat, whisk in the egg substitute, blending quickly and thoroughly. Add the Splenda/sugar blend and whisk until combined. Slowly add the lemon juice and zest, whisking to fully incorporate.

Return pan to burner and over lowest possible heat cook, whisking constantly until the consistency of soft pudding, about 10 minutes. Now listen up. When I say whisking constantly, I mean it. You cannot take your eyes off this nor stop your whisking for even one nano-second. Your mixture will curdle or worse, burn. This is, of course, because you are cooking the curd right on the heat source, not in the double boiler that most recipes will tell you to use. I don't happen to have a double boiler (Santa, are you reading this?), and so use the direct heat source method, which is why I have to be so very attentive.

When the curd is done, remove the pan from the heat, give the curd a final stir and let it cool a bit in the pan. Pour it into your favorite tartlet shells, spread it between layers of your favorite cake recipe, use it to butter your toast, or give it away in pretty jars as gifts. Just keep it refrigerated. It will keep about 3 weeks in the fridge if you can control yourself. The above recipe makes a scant 2 cups of curd.

Don't mind sugar and more fat? Use 3 eggs instead of the egg substitute and a scant cup of sugar instead of the Splenda blend. For me, I'm going to try using Smart Balance butter substitute in my next batch.

Eggies and Toast - EoMEoTE #13

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This is my contribution to the End of the Month Egg on Toast Extravaganza #13, hosted by Cook Sister.

My three boys are grown up now, but ever since each of them has been able to hold a spoon, the most comforting comfort food that they remember has been what they dubbed "Eggies and Toast". Simple, basic, homely, comforting. It's what they would ask for if sick, upset, sad or just hungry. This is my first offering to EoMEoTE and I'm happy to share this humble dish exactly the way I've made it for the past thirty years. No embellishments. To this day, they love it.

Butter well 2 slices of hot toast and tear up into a bowl. Crack 2 soft-cooked eggs with a spoon around the middle, break in half and, using the spoon, scoop the insides onto the pieces of toast. Sprinkle all over with Spike seasoning and mix together until the toast pieces are coated with egg yolk. Serve immediately while reciting my rather horrible rendition of a rhyme called "A Seasonable Song" from The Real Mother Goose:

Eggies and Toast piping hot.
What I've got
You have not.
Hot, hot Eggies and Toast;
M-m-m so good, hot, hot, hot!

A Thanksgiving Offering

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These were part of the Thanksgiving spread at our house this year. We so enjoyed the company of family and friends who came to share this most precious of holidays with us. We are thankful for all of you!

Roasted Red & Yellow Beets in Sherry Vinaigrette with Blue Cheese & Toasted Walnuts
Roast equal amounts of scrubbed baby red and yellow beets in a 375 degree oven, wrapped in separate foil packages (red, yellow), until tender when pierced with a knife, about 45 minutes.
Open foil packages and allow to cool to room temp.
When cool, peel the skins off with a sharp knife and cut off the tops and tail ends.
Place decoratively in a dish with 1-inch high sides.
Drizzle with your favorite vinaigrette (my recipe is below) and crumble Pt. Reyes Blue Cheese over the top, followed by coarsely chopped toasted walnuts.

Sherry Vinaigrette

• 2 tablespoons Jerez Sherry vinegar
• pinch of Kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 heaping tablespoon good Dijon mustard
• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Place first 4 ingredients in a glass container and whisk until blended.
Slowly pour olive oil into container, whisking constantly, until emulsified and well blended.
Store at room temperature.

Quince-Raisin Tarte Tatin

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A few days before Thanksgiving, while walking down the produce section of our local Murphy's Market, I spied a dozen golden yellow, medium sized quince nestled in a basket of white netting . Instantly, visions of ruby slices cooked down to a tender, mouth-watering dish of citrusy-melony sweetness almost made me dizzy. I bought a bunch of them, their lovely scent filling my shopping basket with a gentle perfume.

At home, while poring through my legion of cookbooks, I happened upon Georgeann Brennan's Potager. This is a lovely book that I return to again and again for rustic but elegant French-inspired dishes. Here, then, is an adaptation of her recipe of Quince Tarte Tatin, which was served the evening before Thanksgiving to early arrivals.
Fruit Preparation (start this the day before serving)

• 6 medium quinces
• 2 cups Merlot
• 1/4 cup sugar/Splenda blend
• 1 vanilla bean
• 3/4 cup golden raisins

Peel and core the quinces and cut into 1/4 inch slices. In a bowl, mix sugar, wine, vanilla bean, raisins and quinces. Cover and let stand at room temperature 12 hours or overnight.
Butter Pastry Dough - adapted from Bon Appetit, November 2003

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached flour
• 1/2 tablespoon sugar or Splenda
• a pinch to 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) very cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 3 tablespoons, or more, ice water

Blend flour, sugar and salt in food processor. Add butter and pulse just until coarse meal forms. Add ice water by tablespoons, pulsing just until moist clumps form. Add water by the 1/2 tablespoon if dough is dry. Gather into a ball, press into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap and refridgerate for 1 hour or up to 3 days. Let soften slightly before rolling out. This recipe makes 1 nine-inch crust. Double the recipe for a double pie crust.
Putting it all together
Butter a glass pie dish, 9 to 10 inches in diameter, with 1 tablespoon of butter. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar over the bottom of the buttered dish.
With a slotted spoon, remove the quince and raisins from the merlot soaking liquid. Leaving the vanilla bean behind, place 1/2 of the quince-raisin mixture in the pie dish, covering the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle with 1/8 cup of sugar and then add the rest of the quince-raisin mixture and sprinkle with another 1/8 cup of sugar. (By the way, I used Splenda-Sugar blend in my tarte, following the suggested measurement ratios, and it tasted wonderful.) Cut 1 tablespoon butter into small pieces and dot the top of the fruit mixture with it.
Roll the pastry out on a floured cloth to about 1/8 inch thickness. Wrap the pastry around your rolling pin and place it atop the pie dish. Trim the edge of the pastry, fold the edges under and tuck inside the pie dish. Pinch the dough to adhere to the sides of the dish then prick all over with a fork.
Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven in the center of the middle rack for 45 minutes to 1 hour. When the tarte is done, the crust will be a golden brown and a thick, ruby colored syrup will have formed in the bottom of the dish. Better yet, some of the syrup will leak out of the top of the crust. A sure sign of doneness.
Remove the tarte from the oven, gently loosen the crust with a knife, place a platter over the tarte dish and, holding the tarte dish and the platter together, immediately invert the tarte onto the platter.
Bonus Sauce
Don't toss out the merlot-sugar-vanilla bean soaking liquid. Instead, remove the vanilla bean, place the liquid in a saucepan and bring to a boil, reducing it by 1/2. This may take 1/2 hour or more. Be careful not to let the liquid burn. When it has reduced and thickened somewhat, add 1/4 cup heavy cream, stirring madly all the while. Be careful here, adding the cream can make the liquid in the pan boil up. Keep stirring until the cream is incorporated and the sauce coats the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, allow to cool and serve drizzled over the tarte.

August is Such a Busy Month, Revisited

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Today I'm Adding a photo to this post from August to show you one of the regions we visited while in France - the Dordogne River Valley. You can see why I was so excited! Watch for more photos soon.


I realize that I have not posted anything to my blog in quite a while. The reason being that August is the time when people visit us. And stay awhile! We have campfires, go for walks on the beach, go to brew pubs, listen to music and eat wonderful food; some home-cooked (by me, of course) and some at local restaurants.

I have 2 drafts written but not finished of some of the meals shared in August, along with some great photos. And many more posts that are in my head but not on paper, so to speak. But you will have to wait awhile to see them because, in just one week, we're going to Europe for 5 weeks. And I'm so excited that I can't concentrate on much except - Europe!

When I return, just in time for Thanksgiving, I'll sit myself down and do some writing, photographing and posting.

A bien tot!

Butternut Squash Ravioli: Not just Pasta for Dinner

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This has been sitting in my "Edits" box since last August. With all the wintery, rainy weather, I thought I'd bring it out, dust it off and show you some summer!



















I picked up some beautiful butternut squash-filled rainbow pasta ravioli today at the Co-op. They were so pretty, with the multi-colored vegetable pastas looking like confetti pressed into the raviolis. In the produce isle, the organic shitake mushrooms were seeming to say, "Me! Me!", so into the basket they went. Boneless, skinless chicken breasts along with zukes and basil from my garden had been on my mind for dinner tonight and with the purchase of the ravioli and shitakes, my plan began to take shape.

The memory of the Ginger-Shitake sauce from our seared ahi dinner (see Ahi post) was still causing my tastebuds to make little leaps of joy, so I started out by re-creating it only this time I used thai basil from my garden instead of cilantro. I cut the amount of lime juice to a mere 2 teaspoons. The rest was pretty much the same procedure as before and the results were wonderful.

The ravioli was cooked just past al dente in boiling, salted water. Take them out before they start to fall apart - they will continue to cook a bit due to the heat inside. The chicken breasts were grilled to a juicy, just-done tenderness; the zucchini grilled quickly afterwards. The sauce, so perfectly paired with the grilled chicken, was just the right compliment to the raviolis, which were able to stand on their on with just the smallest amount of sauce spilling on to them hither and thither. M-m-m-m!