December 4, 2013 New Recipe – Sautéed White Acorn and Turban Squash and chard with sautéed pork steak

December 4, 2013 New Recipe – Sautéed White Acorn and Turban Squash and chard with sautéed pork steak

The weather report predicted the arrival of a large winter storm later today but mild weather of around 54˚ until then.  After a salad with only palm hearts and some pecorino cheese, I decided to go to PRO”S Ranch Market to re-provision the kitchen, especially with salad making ingredients.

 So after replacing my license at 3:00 p.m., I went to Pro’s and bought bananas and Mexican squash  ($.33/lb.), beautiful vine ripe tomatoes ($.89/lb.), six small avocados (3 for $.99), yellow onions ($.59/lb.), green onions ($.50/bunch), red radishes ($.33/bunch), a cucumber ($.25 each) and some Oaxacan string cheese ($.3.89/lb.).

When Suzette arrived home I told her that I wanted to cut up the whole pork 6 lb. tender I had bought at Costco the other day and sauté pork steaks and serve them with sweet potatoes.   She said, “Why not bake all them with all the squashes.”  So I cut the white acorn squash and the turban squash in half and laid them on a cookie sheet with the two sweet potatoes and Suzette de-seeded the squashes and baked them in a 350˚ oven for 50 minutes.   I went to the basement and fetched a bottle of 2012 La Ferme Julien Rosé Ventoux Appellation Contrôle ($5.99 at Trader Joe’s) and chilled it in the freezer for about ½ hour while the potatoes and squashes were baking.

I also wanted to pick some chard before the storm hit so we would have some that was not frozen. I went to the garden and picked a grocery bag full of it and came back in and de-stemmed it and cut the leaves into bite sized pieces while watching the news and then placed the chard in a colander and washed the cut up leaves.   

 I cut the tender into 1 inch chops and we wrapped them in saran and put them into the freezer for later use.  Suzette then said I would like to sauté the pork with apples, so I cut one of the large apples I had bought at Pro’s several weeks ago ($.69/lb.) in half and skinned it and sliced it into thirds and then into thin slices.  It made about ½ cup of firm apple slices.  After Suzette started to sauté the pork in butter around 6:40 p.m., we added the apple slices and I asked, “Shall we add an herb?”  We decided that sage would be nice with the pork, so I went to the garden and plucked a limb of it from our sage bush in the near darkness around 6:30 p.m.   Suzette then said she wanted to add some wine flavoring and looked for the Madeira but found the Marsala instead and asked it that was okay with me and of course I said, “That is great.  I love the fruitiness of Marsala.”  So she splashed ¼ cup of Marsala into the pork skillet.

Also around 6:30 p.m. while I was cutting and wrapping pork steaks, Suzette peeled the squashes and sweet potato skins from their meat and cubed their meat and began sautéing it with two cloves of garlic minced in a garlic press and 2 Tbsp. of light brown sugar in a large skillet with 2 Tbsp. of butter.  After the squash had softened and heated and the pork was cooking, Suzette added some of the chard leaves to the potato and squash mixture and another Tbsp. of butter to emulsify it and was careful to stop cooking the chard to prevent it from collapsing into mush.

 

 

So at around 7:00 we were ready to eat.  Suzette plated the dish very attractively by making a mound with the sautéed potatoes, chard and squash and placing the pork steak slices on it and then garnishing the top with the apple slices and then drizzled the apple slices with the slightly thickened sage and Marsala sauce from the pork skillet.  Here are the plates.
 

 

I poured glasses of 2012 La Ferme Julien and we had a great winter dinner as we listened to the wind blow by the fireplace and waited for the storm to arrive.

 

The Ferme Julien is made by the Perrin family that is one of the best and largest producers of wine in the Rhône Valley of France.  Their Ferme Julien rosé is consistently good with fruity, tannin overtones and, in my opinion, the best value in rosé wines at $5.99.

 We drank the whole bottle, finishing it with a few chocolate covered peanut M&Ms.

   Bon Appétit