Each season has its harvest. In the summer we enjoy fresh fruits and vegetables from our gardens in light and cool meals. However, “autumn harvest” is also special in New England. After our warm summer and early fall, the cool nights beckon hearty meals of apples, pears, pumpkins, squash, and cider. In colonial times, these became the staples for the winter meals; in particular, apples were dried to last the long cold winter and were used in recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The aromas of pork, apples, and squash, combined with cider and sage, fill my kitchen each fall as I make one of my family’s favorite dinners that I would like to share with you.
Pork with Apples, Squash, Cider, and Sage
A few years ago I planted sage seeds that have produced robust plants. If you can’t find fresh sage, give me a call; I have two large plants in my garden and would gladly share it.
Pork Chops
4 pork chops
1 Vidalia onion sliced thinly
2 medium apples, cored and sliced into wedges
¾ cup cider
1 tablespoon raw sugar or 2 teaspoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons dried sage
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
Salt and pepper
Fresh sage leaves for decoration (optional)
Baked Acorn Squash
1 acorn squash
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter
Preheat oven to 375 F.
Cut acorn squash into quarters, remove seeds. Melt butter in microwave. Stir in brown sugar and cinnamon. Place acorn slices in a baking dish with ½ inch of water. Spoon sugar mixture over squash, cover and bake until tender (about 20 to 30 minutes).
Heat large skillet, add a tablespoon of olive oil; when hot, add onions and sauté until transparent. Transfer to a bowl; set aside.
Cut excess fat off pork, salt and pepper each side. Add 2 tablespoons of olive oil to heated skillet and add 2 tablespoons of butter. Do not let butter brown. (If you experience meat sticking to the pan when you brown with olive oil, the olive oil and butter combination seems to prevent the meat from sticking.) Add pork chops, crumble dry sage over each, and brown on both sides. Transfer to baking dish. Deglaze skillet with 2 tablespoons cider, scraping bits off bottom; pour over chops, cover with foil, and place in oven.
Melt 1 tablespoon butter in skillet. Toss sugar with sliced apples and add to skillet, sauté apples until tender. Add remaining cider and cooked onions. Simmer for 5 minutes. Remove pork from oven and pour any juice into the skillet. Spoon apples and onion mixture over pork and return baking dish to the oven. Simmer juice in skillet for 10 minutes.
Arrange pork chop with apples, squash, and onions on plates; spoon sauce over meal. Decorate with sage leaves. Serves 4.
Pear Upside Down Cake
With all the pears falling from our tree, I decided I needed to use a few. Several weeks ago I said to my daughter, “Let’s make a pear upside down cake.”
So I pulled out a few cookbooks only to find pineapple upside down cake but no pear upside down. All the recipes required a cast iron skillet and a few ingredients that I didn’t have on hand. Each recipe was slightly different as to the amount of flour, baking powder, or baking soda. That didn’t deter us—we improvised as usual! I had the basics: flour, butter, sugar, baking powder, salt, and eggs. I started to measure a little of this and that.
The first time I made the cake, the center was slightly undercooked, which my daughter loved but which did not satisfy the rest of the family. The second version was cooked more and was eaten in nearly one sitting!
I didn’t write down the recipe the first time and had to work from memory when I made it again. It wasn’t until I had made the cake several times, with different results each time, that I decided I’d better write it down. After making the cake several more times over the past month, we settled on the following recipe.
Topping
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter (melted)
1½ tablespoons Irish Mist, Brandy, or pear nectar
3 small pears, peeled, cored, cut into ¼-inch slices
Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease sides of 9-inch cake pan. Melt 2 tablespoons butter in microwave, stir in sugar until blended. Whisk in liquor until smooth, and spread on bottom of prepared pan. Place pear slices in bottom of pan decoratively. Set aside.
Cake
4 tablespoons butter
¾ cup sugar
1 egg
1 ¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ginger
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup milk (slightly more if batter is not right consistency)
Cream butter in large bowl; add sugar and blend well. Beat in egg. Sift flour, then measure 1¼ cups; add baking powder, ginger, and salt. Sift again. Add flour alternating with milk in three additions, beginning and ending with flour. Pour batter over pears. Place in center of oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes (depending on whether you want a well-done center) or until tester comes out clean.
Remove from oven and let cool for 15 minutes. Loosen sides of cake with a knife. Place serving plate on top of cake pan and turn over to remove.
