Friday, October 9, 2009

A is for Pork-stuffed Apples...

...and L is for Lazy Blogger. Sorry 'bout that.

This was my other attempt at a savory apple dish. Not entirely successful but, hey, not a kitchen meltdown either.

In the Prince Caspian book of The Chronicles of Narnia, the Pevensies eat bear meat roasted around apples while they're marching through the woods towards Caspian, and I’ve always thought that sounded oddly good. (The food, not the marching). So that’s where this started for me. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a source for bear meat.

The Joy of Cooking had a recipe for Sausage-stuffed Baked Apples, and that nudged me in a pork-ward direction (never a hard sell).

Here’s what I did:

- Lopped the tops off and dug out most of the insides of two apples.
- Seasoned two pork chops with sage, salt and white pepper. Cubed one and shoved it into the apples, sliced the other in half long ways and wrapped it around.


- Placed the apples on a bed of frozen hash browns (with a dash of milk).
- Baked that at 400 for 30 minutes


- I pulled it out to check the progress at that point and added some butter to the top of each apple. (I was worried about the pork being too dry.)
- I also added some zucchini to the dish and put the whole thing back in the oven for another 30.

How did it turn out:
It was ok, but the pork was a bit dry (darnit) and under seasoned (eep) and the side veggies didn’t really “go” with the main part (ok, probably something I wouldn't worry about if i didn't watch so many cooking shows). It was fine for home cooking. I mean, we ate it all and weren't hungry later or anything, but I wouldn't have wanted to serve it to guests.


What I’d change:
- The meat needed more moisture.
- I’d either try a fatter meat option next time,
- or marinate the stuff for a bit (which would've added more seasoning too. Hmm)
- or maybe try cooking the dish covered. I’m bad about that.

- The meat should’ve been smaller, to better fill up and get cozy with the apples. A nice mince or even a ground option would’ve been better, I suspect. Bad on me for being lazy in the meat breakdown.

- Still not really sure what sides would’ve suited better here. Way open to suggestions.

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