Chocolate Cherry sauce

Yes, I'm serious.

Who thinks "I need to eat more chocolate?"  I do.  Chocolate (not milk chocolate, and not Hershey's) is good for you.

I sliced pork tenderloin into thin coins so it cooks quickly on a low-med heat in a well seasoned cast iron pan (I sprinkle them with salt and maybe if I'm feeling real crazy some paprika) and then set aside.  I'll pour off any liquid from the meat for my dog pal.

For the sauce:
3 heaping TBSP Cherry preserves (or 1/4 Cup sweet cherries pitted and halved)  Tart pie cherries are fine too you just need to adjust them with some vegan sugar.
2 TBSP vegan sugar (more if using straight sour pie cherries)
2 TBSP cocoa powder (straight real stuff not with anything added)
1/4 Cup water to dissolve sugar and cocoa powder in.

I put my sugar and water into a sauce pan and simmer it just until sugar is dissolved, you'll need to be constantly stirring.  After the sugar is dissolved I add cocoa and whisk it in to make it as smooth as possible.  Now the little teeny balls of cocoa is NOT a bad thing.

  * Tangent*Most cocoa powder is "Dutched" or Dutch process and that means they've removed the cocoa butter which then gets turned into chocolates and white chocolate and non-food things.  So those tiny annoying balls of cocoa form from the residual cocoa butter and oils in the cocoa - and try as you may to smash them, they are stubborn.  * Tangent over*

So once it is as smooth as I can get it I pour it over a tiny screen to filter out the lumps and let the sauce pour through into another little pan.  I'll use a steeping ball made of mesh to do this since the wire is a very fine mesh.  Then on very low I'll scoop in the cherries, or cherry preserves.  Blending everything until it become a warm smooth syrupy bliss.

This will be a thin sauce, like a glaze.

You can now drizzle this over pork tenderloin, chicken, duck, a roast.  I get all sloppy and just toss the meat in it so it coats it like a really fancytown bbq.  This sauce likes a darker meat, a gamey meat best... but unless you're rich or a hunter you may be limited.

If you're vegetarian this is CRAZY delicious over garlic mashed potatoes!  No kidding at all.
It is also an intensely wonderful thing to sop up with bread and biscuits!

There are a million variations you can do on this.  Like using a liquer, sherry, lavender blossoms etc.
Enjoy!

Bulgogi - no soy sauce -

Bulgogi was something I used to dream of and think of fondly feeling I could never recreate it without the magic of soy sauce.  Like MOST recipes I found a beyond suitable representation of my favorite and I couldn't be more happy with this one.

There is a sweet bulgogi (often served on beef) and a hot bulgogi (often served on pork).  I love both but prefer the super hot!

For the sweet bulgogi you cut all the pepper(s) in half (or even further if cooking for the heat tolerant impaired) the amount below and double the sugar of the amount below.

For Hot bulgogi you will need:
1 to 2 lb (mine is usually 1.5 beef) of London broil beef or equivalent of pork loin cut sliced thinly 1/8th inch.  I get mine from Afton field farm and I let it half thaw so it is really easy to cut, if you let it thaw fully it will wiggle and squish away from your blade's edge.
1 tsp Cayenne
1/2 tsp Serrano
1 tsp Paprika  (Getting good paprika is a pain - it should smell Earthy and taste like a round light warmth - not just be red)
1/2 tsp Crushed red pepper flakes OR an equally high heat pepper flake I use - Thai Orange.
A handful of garlic cloves, 6 med. cloves approx.  Crushed using a press.
1 TBSP - 1/4 Cup vegan sugar
1/2 tsp - 1 TBSP any honey you like (I use a really light colored honey for the hot bulgogi and a dark honey for the sweet bulgogi)
1/2 tsp sea salt

Optional:
1/2 inch knuckle of Fresh Ginger if you want.  I don't usually, but it is really tasty with it as well.
Top with toasted golden flax seed or sesame.
Top with spring onion, green onion sliced thinly or chives.

All of these peppers I grow and process into either powder or flake form. But if you have a flavorful and reliable spice resource then use those.

 

Preparation:
When making bulgogi the most important bit is that the meat is sliced thinly (against the grain) this does several things it coats the meat in the spices thoroughly, the meat will curl a bit as it cooks and hold little spicy pockets of garlic, peppers and sugar lastly it cooks it very very quickly and it should be very tender (not overcooked) and made after all other foods for the meal are finished or on their way to being done.

If it looks like way too much pepper, it is perfect.

I cook this, like many things, in a dry (but well seasoned) cast iron pan.  The meat goes directly into a warm-hot pan - it will stick a little but it will release juices from the meat and free up.  Quickly press or add chopped garlic to meat and toss.  Add all peppers and salt, stir in and lastly add sugar and stir making sure all is coated.  If at any point you find this frustrating, or don't have a cast iron pan you can use a spoonful of sunflower oil, safflower oil to the pan to aid in cooking.

 

It is done once the salt and sugar have dissolved, coat with juices and pepper in the pan and serve with your choice of goodness.

This is usually served with rice and wrapped in a fat green leafy vegetable like a romaine or butter lettuce.  I like it with sweet potatoes or squash in the winter.  Hot and spicy meals make the winter get scared away at least for a moment.  Num.

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.

Berry dressing

Dear God, do I love berries.  Nothing is more amazing than a berry vinagrette drizzled over soft buttery leaves!  Want to power pack that chicken or turkey sandwich?!  Put a berry dressing on it!

Yes, that was a lot of exclamations.  I mean it.  I can't get enough of them.  You can alter any of these basics to yield the most sumptuous sauce and add your own complexities as well.

I used frozen blueberries, but of course you can use fresh.
Blueberry dressing:
1 c blueberries
3 tsp sugar
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
a tiny sprinkle of salt

Pour berries into a pan and simmer them until they leak some of their juices as they look and smell warm add sugar and salt, mash loosely with a fork and let cool... while still warm add vinegar to the berries.  Pour this into a container and let sit in the fridge for at least 3 days.  The wait is hard, but the berries become more infused through the vinegar.  You can always add things to this to get other tones.  Sprig of mint during the heating stage, a dash of cinnamon... its a good base for going nuts.

I like this on spinach and butter lettuce.  I had it on a turkey sandwich and I made a pasta salad with spinach and turkey with it.  It's a delight and helps me get through the end of the winter.

 

Blueberry dressing