Apple Ginger Acorn Squash

I have to straddle a fine line to eek some ginger into my life because Jason doesn't like it unless it is soda and even then he likes it far more tame than I prefer it.  This is a good dish to get a ginger fix and still have a lot of savory other things happening to keep the slightly more finicky tongues busy.

What you need:

• 1 large or two small acorn squash
• 1 granny smith apple (peeled and cored then diced in chunks)
• 1/4-1/2 inch little knuckle of ginger
• sea salt to taste
• cayenne (optional)
• a clove of garlic (optional)
• teeny pinch nutmeg (optional)

Preheat your oven to 375.  Oil lightly a pan.  Make sure your acorn squash either does NOT have wax on the exterior or give it a scalding rinse/scrub.  The food wax is the worst.  And if you're in a hurry when buying food it is really tough to see it.  Scratch it with your finger and if you reach the real skin in the scratch, great!  If not, this is very thick wax and may need to be cut off!  It is always best if there is NONE at all.

The easy way to cook squash is to cut it in half, scoop out the interior squish (reserving seeds if you're a gardener in case this is the best squash of your life) place the flesh side down on the pan and bake forever.  Checking every 20 minutes, then decreasing checking time to 15 and the closer to done then to 5 minutes.  It is not a rigid science with the huge variety of sizes these come in. You can't do this method if the wax is stubborn.  It will run down the sides to your pan and then it is on the flesh.  You can skin the squash with a peeler and knife for the crevasses. This way seems painfully intense but, you can then cut 1/2 inch rings and chop the squash into little pieces and it cooks really quickly.

After the squash is half way done... smaller pieces are effortlessly pierced with a fork.  Now it is time to add the granny smith chunks to the pan.  Cook for another 15 minutes until the outside flesh of the apple chunks have a silken but sad looking skin. It should now smell like autumn, and be sweet.

Place cooked lovelies into a tall mixing bowl with abrupt sides (this will keep things from flying out) and using a mixer blend until squash is mashed potato like -apples may most likely remain in chunks and not smooth through.  This is preferable.

You can keep this in an oven dish in a warm oven if it is completed before other things in the meal because this will lose heat quickly!

I served the squash with this:

I slice up some garlic and sautee it in a pan on a low-med heat until golden brown and crispy and then put aside.

I shredded a carrot finely into the remaining oil in the pan and tossing them often I let them darken and then removed them and put aside.

These are Heritage Pork chops which were cooked purely in their own fat, no oil or butter and some paprika I dried and ground from my garden.  After the pork chops are done -they only take minutes to cook and if put into a nice already hot cast iron skillet you are just cooking them until there is a nice caramelizing on the fat of the pork (a good chop will be marbled with fat and may have the caramelizing on the "fleshy" parts as well.  If you like your chops a little well done and cook them a couple minutes (on both sides)  just give a tiny slice to the meatier part on the outer edge.  This slice will firm up and open up looking like a triangle was cut out.  This is a "well" cooked chop.  I prefer mine to still expel a great deal of moisture so I do mine about medium -just touching it with my cooking fork in the center of the meat for firmness and using caramelization as the guide.  A good pork chop will have a PINK tone to it.  It will not be white. The Other White Meat is a campaign for cheap industrialized factory farmed pork. 

After the pork is done I put a TINY amount of butter in the pan which takes a little of the pork drippings off the pan and then I add a handful of pineapple sage cut chiffonade and stir it into the butter until the sage wilts.

I place the sage and garlic chips over the pork.

And a final Pork porn shot.