recipe: rosemary pork and spiced apples

 Gold Star Pork Stew Meat was 1.99/lb last week at BiLo. Yeah! And I had this distinctly accented voice in my head saying, "pork chops and applesauce," that others of you could peg, but all I remember is the phrase. My stomach says, "I want something pork with apples, but with a fresh spin." So I search "pork + apple + recipe" and get way too many ideas, scrap most of them, but toss a few in the back of my brain and start cooking.

Stock Pot, Medium High.

Start with 1/4 cup butter.

Add 6 apples, sliced and cored, but not peeled.

Spice it up with 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/2 tsp ginger, and 1/4 tsp nutmeg, or try pumpkin pie spice, more or less to your liking.

Stir, nicely coating apples in the spice mixture, then ...

Add 2 cups water and bring to a boil. Cook w/o lid just until tender (about 5 minutes). 



spiced apples.




Set aside liquid (drained off apples) and spiced apples separately. You'll add them both back at specified points in the process.

Now you're ready to brown the meat in a generous amount of olive oil in the spiced pan.
I had 1.83 pounds of meat, but anywhere from 1 1/2 pounds to 2 pounds would work for these amounts.
Add 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (opt.) and 1/2 tsp rosemary. Brown.

Once meat is browned, kick it with 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar.

It's gonna bubble up. Just let it work it's magic for about 5 minutes. This will both tenderize your meat and give it a tangy German flair.





pork with apple cider magic.





After about 5 minutes, go ahead and drain off the vinegar.

Add spiced liquid from apples back into the pork. Bring to boil, then reduce heat to simmer.
Let cook thoroughly. Just before serving, return apples to pot to ensure warmth and stir in 1/3 cup brown sugar (opt.).

Serve with tangy green beans (or steam-in-a-bag peas for ease) and brown rice. Enjoy!!!



bon appetit.