Healthy Wintery Comfort Food

I'm intensely grumpy today. Messy house + upcoming microecon midterm do not make for a happy Kari. My day was noticeably improved, however, by this low-fat dish of shredded butternut squash, tomatoes, shallots, garlic, red pepper flakes, and penne--heavy on the veggies. I'm still grumpy, but dinner + a glass of vinho verde improved my mood significantly!

This recipe is from Mark Bittman's recent NYT article on "rethinking pasta"--upping the amount of sauce, and decreasing the amount of pasta, which you can find here. Sometimes I find Bittman's recipes to be boring and/or untasty (and yet his compendium is one of the best cookbooks out there), but this one hit the spot.

Pasta With Winter Squash and Tomatoes

Salt and pepper

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon chopped garlic

1/4 cup sliced shallots

1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, or to taste

2 cups chopped tomatoes

1 1/2 to 2 pounds peeled, cubed or shredded butternut or other winter squash, about 5 cups

1/2 pound cut pasta, like ziti or penne

Freshly chopped parsley or Parmesan for garnish.

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and salt it. Put olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic, shallots and pepper flakes and cook for about a minute; add tomatoes and squash, and cook with some salt and pepper.

2. When squash is tender — about 10 minutes for shreds, 15 or so for small cubes — cook pasta until it is tender. Combine sauce and pasta, and serve, garnished with parsley or Parmesan.

Yield: 4 servings.

Fennel-Crusted Pork Loin with Roasted Potatoes and Pears

Well, hello autumn!!! Finally this weekend we got 3 glorious, sun-filled days in the 60s--and the mild bite in the air inspired me to make a roast. This month's Real Simple has a whole section on them--next, I'm going to try the roast beef with tomatoes--but I wanted something that would help me detox after a pretty...ahem...hectic weekend. The pork loin is low in fat, the pears and red onion are high in antioxidants, and the potatoes provide the crucial comfort factor. Best of all, this dish takes only 15 minutes of prep, and requires very little cleanup. What more could you ask for?!

So, how does it taste? Deeeelish. The pork tastes like it's been braised--you don't even need a knife to cut through it, it's like buttah--and the fennel, garlic, and pear juice combine into a great light sauce. I would recommend using a very large roasting pan for this dish, to give all the elements a chance to brown. When serving, spoon some of the juices over the medallions of pork.

Makes (at least) 6 servings
15 minutes prep, 70 minutes cooking time

1 tbsp fennel seeds
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 tbsp of olive oil
Kosher salt and pepper
2 pounds boneless pork loin (I used tenderloin)
2 red onions, quartered
1 pound small white potatoes, quartered
3 firm pears (such as Bartlett or D'Anjou), cored and quartered

Heat oven to 400. Grind up the fennel seeds, either in a mortar and pestle or using the bottom of a heavy pan. In a small bowl, mix the seeds, the garlic, 2 tbsp of the oil, 1 tsp salt, and 1/4 tbsp pepper. Rub the mixture over the pork. In the roasting pan, mix the onions, potatoes, pears, 1 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, and the remaining oil. Nestle the pork in the middle of the produce in the pan. Roast until cooked through, about 70 minutes (internal temp of 160). Let the pork rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Serve and enjoy!

Weekend Scrambled Eggs

Remember those tough, chewy, hard scrambled eggs you ate in college? Well these aren't those eggs. This is one of our weekend traditions--these soft, moist, curdless eggs, accompanied by strips of turkey bacon and fruit. These don't take any more work than your everyday eggs--just a bit more time to get accustomed to the stove. As with most egg recipes, there are endless variations to try--adding herbs, different cheeses, cooked vegetables, shrimp--whatever your heart desires.

The recipe is another Bittman classic--the original asks for oil or butter, but I've found I don't need it with my nonstick pans. If you're using non-nonstick, I'd swirl 2-4 tbsp of butter, preferably, or olive oil around the pan first. Bittman also asks for cream and tarragon leaves--I like the recipe better with a healthy dose of aged cheese; if I'm feeling adventurous, my other favorite add-in is minced pickled jalapenos--2 or 3 tbsp. Bittman also recommends that you cook the eggs over low heat for 40 minutes, but I don't have anything close to that level of patience; I do medium-low for 20 minutes and it tastes basically the same.

Makes 2 servings
Time: about 20 minutes

5 eggs
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 tsp minced fresh tarragon leaves or 1/4 teaspoon dried tarragon (optional, IMO)
2 tbsp cream (also optional)
Kari's preferred addition: third of a cup of freshly grated cheddar, monterey jack, or parmesan

1) Place a medium skillet, preferably non-stick, over medium-low heat for 1 minute. Add butter and swirl, if using.

2) Beat the eggs with the remaining ingredients and pour into the skillet. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. At first, nothing will happen; after 5-10 minutes or so, the eggs will begin to form curds. Keep stirring, breaking up the curds as they form, until the mixture is a mass of soft curds. This will take up to 20 minutes. Serve immediately--some of my favorite accompaniments are toast or cheddar biscuits fresh from the oven.

Possible Additions:

• sauteed mushrooms or other cooked vegetables, cut into small dice, about 1/2 cup
• diced cooked shrimp or other seafood, about 1/2 cup
• sour cream, cream cheese, or goat cheese, about 1/3 cup
• minced smoked salmon or other fish, about 1/2 cup
• tabasco, worcestershire, or other prepared sauces to taste

Chocolate Pots de Creme

Alright, this is a self-serving post. I acquired this recipe from the February 2007 issue of In Style and made it, very successfully, for a dinner party I had earlier this year. But now, the page of the magazine that the recipe is printed on is slowly withering away, so I figured it was time to immortalize the recipe in the blogosphere.

Warning: this dessert is not diet-friendly. But it *is* incredibly easy to make, with great, great rewards. My friends and I had this with a jug of 30-year old tawny port (yes, a whole jug between the 4 of us...Oh, do I have stories about that night...) and it was deeeeelish. I served this after a meal of pancetta, pear, and goat cheese crisps; Mario Batali's milk-braised lamb (another incredible dish); and braised carrots with cumin and brown sugar--and it was a paean to wintertime. This dish is particularly conducive to dinner parties, as is the lamb described above, because it can be made the night before.

Serves 8

2 1/2 cups of heavy cream (i warned you...)
6 squares (1 oz. each) semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used scharffenberger)
1/4 cup dark rum (Gosling's...make dark and stormys for the evening's cocktail of choice!)
6 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
Whipped cream for garnish (try to get fresh, unpasteurized cream. Pasteurized cream has weird solids in it that change the look and taste of whipped cream)

1. Heat oven to 325. Place the rack in the center of the oven.

2. In saucepan over medium-low heat, whisk heavy cream, chocolate, and rum until chocolate has melted (make sure the cream is not too hot, or boiling, because it will scramble the eggs).

3. In medium bowl, whisk egg yolks and sugar until combined.

4. Slowly whisk hot cream into eggs.

5. Divide mixture among 8 6-oz ramekins. Place ramekins in roasting pan.

6. Carefully pour hot water into pan; water should reach halfway up the side of the ramekins.

7. Bake custards until just set around edges, around 25 minutes (i did closer to 30 minutes).

8. Remove ramekins from water (carefully!!!!) and place in refrigerator for 3 hours or until completely chilled.

9. Garnish with whipped cream.

Quick-Braised Pork Chops with Ginger, Garlic, and Scallions

If any of you readers out there are of the observant ilk, you may have noticed that basically all of my posts thus far (which add up to not many, I admit) are of the quick-quick-quick variety. I especially like foods that *seem* to be high on effort, but are instead just high on taste. These pork chops fit the bill. One of my very good friends aroused my interest in the other white meat last weekend over a delicious meal of pan-sauteed chops--I've never cooked pork at home before--so I decided to buy some good-looking thick pork chops at Safeway (the meat selection was actually quite nice! Thank you, Rancher's Reserve), and I dreamed of white wine sauces and shallots.

Perusing my How to Cook Everything, however, I came across Bittman's recipe for "Sweet Simmered Pork Chops" (I like my title better, hah!). This dish is absolutely perfect for a night where you feel like some soul-soothing cooking but you're not up to more than 30-40 minutes of puttering in the kitchen--all the ingredients are Asian pantry staples, and it's great with just some white rice (I love my Cuckoo rice cooker) and maybe some quick stir-fried cabbage or broccoli. I made broccoli braised in white wine and garlic (sense a pattern in my cooking, yet?) and that fit the bill; the broccoli would have been even better with some toasted sesame seeds to kick up the Asia factor. The pork stayed succulently moist, not an easy feat with low-fat meats like chicken breast or pork chops.

The recipe is for four; I reduced it for two. The salt content of this dish is quite high, so I'd suggest low-sodium soy sauce if you are so concerned.

Makes 4 servings
Time: 20 minutes

1/3 cup soy sauce
2/3 cup water
1/3 cup sherry
1/4 mirin or 2 tbsp honey thinned with a little water
2 tbsp rice or white wine vinegar
5-6 thin slices peeled fresh ginger
3-4 cloves garlic, crushed
4 center-cut loin pork chops, abt 1 inch thick, trimmed of excess fat
1/2 cup minced scallions or 1/4 cup minced chives for garnish

1. In a large skillet with a cover, mix together all ingredients except the pork and scallions or chives. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, turn heat down to medium-low, and simmer, uncovered, for about 5 minutes. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.

2. Add pork, cover, and simmer, turning occasionally, until the meat is just about cooked through, about 15 minutes. (Cook's note: my pork wasn't done at the 15-minute mark, so I chose to keep it on the stove for 3 extra minutes and skip the oven step altogether).

3. Place the chops on an ovenproof platter and put the platter in the oven. Turn the heat up to high and reduce the sauce to 1 cup or a little less. Remove the ginger slices if you like (Who would ever want to do that?!)

4. Plate the chops over some white rice, and spoon the sauce, garlic, and ginger on top. Garnish with scallions or chives.

Drink of choice?: I was craving an Asahi or a Sapporo with this meal, but sadly the pantry was empty on that end.