Pork Chops with Fresh Cheery Pan Sauce

We got some fresh cheeries as part of our basket from Fresh Fork, our local CSA, and decided to make a pan sauce for pork chops from them.  Make a mixture of about 1C pitted cherries, 3T finely diced onion, 3T chopped garlic scapes, 1/4C dry sherry and 3T basalmic vinegar.  Allow this mixture to rest for 2-3 hours.  Brown the chops in an oven-proof skillet.  When they are brown, place them in a 400 degree oven for 10-15 min, to reach an internal temperature of 140 F.  Remove them to a plate and tent with foil.  Deglaze the pan with the cherry mixture and boil to reduce to the desired thickness.  Finish the sauce with 2T butter.

The potatoes have appeared here before.  Boil the redskins until they are fork tender.  In a baking dish, smash them with the bottom of a glass.  Add salt and pepper and minced garlic to taste.  Place in the same oven as the pork chops, for the same amount of time.  The sauce created above is wonderful on the potatoes.  We also served Fresh Fork green beans.

Salad Nicoise

This is a wonderful salad for a warm summer evening.  We grilled fresh tuna but you can used canned if you wish.  Arrange on a bed of lettuce, hard cooked eggs, tomatoes, artichoke hearts, boiled redskin potatoes, blanched green beans, and olives.  The dressing is made by whisking together 1/2C olive oil, 1/4C dry white wine, 1t Dijon mustard, salt and pepper to taste, and chopped fresh basil.  Pour over the salad just before serving.  Serve with a crusty bread and chilled white wine.

Pork Tenderloin with Apricot Chipotla sauce and Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes

Make a marinade for the pork by mixing together 1 well ripened apricot which you crush, 3T basalmic vinegar, 2 cloves minced garlic, 2T Chipotla Tabasco sauce, salt and pepper to taste.  Marinate the pork for several hours or overnight.  Bake two sweet potato until they are fork tender and then allow to cool.  Cut them in half and scoop out the pulp into a bowl.  Mix with 1/4C sour cream, 2T fresh chopped rosemary, 1 slightly beaten egg and 3T bread crumbs.  Mix well and put the mixture back in the skins.  

Remove the pork from the marinade and reserve it.  Brown the pork in an oven proof pan and place it along with the potatoes in a 350 degree oven for about 20 min, until the pork reaches an internal temperature of 140 degrees.  Remove the pork from the pan; deglaze the pan with 1/4C wine and then add the marinade and reduce until the sauce reaches the desired thickness.  Serve the sauce with the meat.

Remove the potatoes from the oven when the sauce is ready.  We completed dinner with steamed green beans and a dry white wine.

Frittata with Swiss Chard and Sausage

This is another recipe using ingredients from our CAS, Fresh Fork Market.  Scramble 6 eggs in a large bowl and stir in 1C ricotta cheese.  While you can use just about any ingredients to make a frittata, we like swiss chard and sausage.  Steam the swiss chard until it is barely wilted.  Brown 1/4 lb. of you favorte link sausage which has been cut into bite sized pieces.  Heat an oven proof 10 in. skillet and add 1T olive oil.  Pour in the egg mixture and add the swiss chard and sausage.  Salt and pepper to taste and then bake at 350 degrees for about 18 min, until the eggs are set and golden brown.  Quick as an omlet and better, we think.

Grilled Chicken with Blueberry BBQ Sauce

In our basket from the Fresh Fork CSA  this week were some garlic scapes and some blue-berries so we decided to use both of them to make some bbq sauce.  (http://www.freshforkmarket.com/)The chicken was rubbed with olive oil, garlic and lemon and allowed to marinate for several hours.  While the chicken was resting, we combined in a sauce pan 2T olive oil, 1/4C garlic scapes, 1/2 of a jalapeno which had been seeded, 1/8t powdered ginger, and a healty pinch of ground cloves.  Heat is mixture gently and stir until the garlic gets tender.  Then add 3/4C fresh whole blueberries, 3T ketchup, 1T balsamic vinegar, 1T bourbon (optional).  Bring to a simmer and cover until the blueberries are cooked and soft.  Blend the entire mixture in a food processor.  We cooked the chicken on the Weber and near the end, added the bbq sauce.  It had a very nice combination of spicy and sweet from the berries.  We have a feeling the same idea would work with strawberries or red/black raspberries perhaps with some adjustments to the spices, but we haven't tried yet.

Sausage with Kale and Beans

We got some kale from our CSA  Comm-unity Sup-ported Agri-culture group and made something around it.  We find that kale is a pretty sturdy green and can take more cooking than, say, swiss chard.  So, put the kale, chopped, in a sauce pan with 1C of water and simmer for about 10 min, the drain it and set aside.  Brown your favorite link sausage in 2T olive oil and near the end of browning, add 3 cloves minced garlic.  Continue to saute until the garlic is just brown.  Then add3T tomato paste mixed with 1C water, and 1/3C chopped kalamata olives, cover and simmer until the sausage is done.  Toss in the kale and a 14 oz. can cannellini beans which have been drained.  Toss the mixture to heat through.  Serve with a crusty bread and a wine of your choice; either red, rose or white will work.