AUTUMN IN A BASKET

 

Create an autumnal meal with these fruits, nuts and vegetables.

Roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes; huesos de santo (saints’ bones, a sweet made of almond paste); pine-nutty panellets from Catalonia, and buñuelos, puffy fritters—all are symbols of the autumn holidays of Todos los Santos (All Saints, Nov. 1) and Fieles Difuntos (Day of the Dead, Nov. 2). 

It’s also the season of the saffron harvest in La Mancha and of newly pressed extra virgin olive oil from my local mill. Coming Nov. 4-10 is International Sherry Week. Also in my autumnal basket are pretty pomegranates, knobbly quince and mushrooms. I’m going to put them all in a pot to celebrate the season.

A slow-cooked stew of pork cheeks with mushrooms and chestnuts in a savory sauce of pomegranate and Sherry with sweet potato fries on the side.

Pork Cheeks with Chestnuts

Carrilladas de Cerdo con Castañas

Pork cheeks are perfect for slow-cooked stews but you could substitute any stew meat in this recipe. 

Pink pomegranate is sweet.

Not all pomegranates have ruby-red kernels. You may have ripe fruit with pale pink arils. They are wonderfully sweet but a disappointment to a food stylist looking for that pop of color to finish a dish. Red pomegranate juice, by the way, cooks to a brownish color. 

A small pomegranate will yield about ¼ cup of juice. If pomegranate is not available substitute grated tomato pulp.

Slit chestnuts and microwave.

A microwave works fine for “roasting” the chestnuts in order to peel them. Cut a slit in the shells across the pointy end of each. Place them, about 6 at a time, on a microwave-safe plate. Microwave on High until the chestnuts begin to hiss as they release steam, 1 to 2 minutes. The slits should open slightly. Wrap the very hot chestnuts in a clean towel. While they are still warm, remove the shells, keeping them whole, if possible. The brown inner skins should come off with the shells. If necessary, scrape off the skins. 

By all means use autumn wild mushrooms such as boletus and níscalo (saffron milk cap) if available. Otherwise meaty portobellos or shitakes are a good stand-in.

Chocolate in a meat sauce? Yes, it’s typical in some Galician and Catalan recipes. And, besides, this week is the first international Chocolate and Cacao Week (Guadalcao) which is being celebrated in Sevilla. Add chocolate to the autumnal basket.

Serves 2

8 ounces (12-14) chestnuts (to make 1 cup chestnut meats)

1 small pomegranate

4 pork cheeks (about 4 ounces each)

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Flour for dusting the meat

3 tablespoons olive oil + more to fry the sweet potatoes

1 cup chopped onion

1 clove chopped garlic

½ cup diced carrot

3 tablespoons chopped apple or quince

4 large mushrooms, cut in half

3 tablespoons Brandy de Jerez

¼ cup pomegranate juice

1/3 cup fino or oloroso seco Sherry

1 cup water or meat stock + more as needed

Sprig rosemary + more to garnish

Sprig of fennel

Pinch of saffron (optional)

½ ounce dark chocolate, chopped (optional)

2 medium sweet potatoes (14-16 ounces)

Microwave the chestnuts and remove their shells as described above. 

Peel the pomegranate and separate the arils (kernels) from the membrane. Set aside a few of the kernels for garnish. Place the rest in a blender and grind them. Sieve the pulp, pressing on the seeds to extract all the juice. 

Trim pork cheeks.

Use the tip of a knife to remove most of the membrane that covers one side of the pork cheeks. Sprinkle the cheeks with salt and pepper and dust them lightly with flour. Heat the oil in a heavy pan and brown them on both sides. Remove the meat.

Add the onion, garlic, carrot and apple to the oil and sauté them on medium until lightly browned, 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms. Add the brandy and cook off the alcohol, 1 minute. Add the pomegranate juice and Sherry and cook them 1 minute. Add the water. Return the pork cheeks to the pan. Season with salt, pepper, rosemary, fennel and saffron, if desired. When liquid begins to simmer, cover the pan and cook 30 minutes.

Turn the pork cheeks and add the chestnuts to the pan. Cover and cook 30 minutes more. 

Fry cubed sweet potatoes in olive oil.

While the meat is cooking, prepare the sweet potatoes. Peel and cut them into ¾-inch cubes. Place oil to a depth of ½ inch in a small skillet and heat. Add the sweet potatoes and fry them on medium-high until they are lightly browned and tender, about 5 minutes. Remove them with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels. Sprinkle the sweet potatoes with salt.

Sauce after blending.

Test the meat for doneness. If not completely tender, cook it 30 minutes longer. When it is fork-tender, remove the pan from the heat. Remove the meat, whole chestnuts (leave any crumbled chestnuts in the pan) and mushrooms. Discard the sprigs of herbs. Scrape the cooking liquid and vegetables into a blender container. Add the chocolate, if using. Blend until the sauce is smooth. Return the sauce to the pan with additional water or stock as needed to make a pouring gravy. Return the meat to the pan to reheat.

Serve the pork cheeks, sauce and fried sweet potatoes garnished with sprigs of rosemary and reserved pomegranate kernels.

A bouquet of fall flowers and a hearty red wine to accompany the autumn flavors.

More recipes with autumn flavor:

Wild Mushroom and Potato Stew.

Savory Sweet Potato Flan.

Spiced Quince Sauce for Meat.

Roast Spareribs with Chestnuts.

Coleslaw with Pomegranate.

POMEGRANATES--FESTIVE JEWELS

I once lived in an old house in the village with a big, overgrown garden behind it. Stone dry walls divided the sloping garden into terraces on which were planted many trees—an olive, a fig, orange and lemon, peach, pear and apricot. All these I could identify. Then there were some others, new and exotic to me.

One of these bloomed flamboyant red flowers in the spring and then in the fall  produced fruits of a deep red color, the size of big apples, tufted, with skin like burnished leather.

Cut open, the fruit revealed jewel-like red kernels. This, I learned was the pomegranate, called granada in Spanish. (While it’s not clear that the name of the Spanish city of Granada derives from the fruit, it’s true that the pomegranate is grown in that southern Spanish city.)

I treasure these jewels for their intense sweet-tangy flavor and their glowing, ruby-red color.

The “jewels”—arils—are the edible parts. The red juice is enclosed in a transparent kernel with a tiny edible pip in the center. The flavor is tart and sweet with a little tannic edge.

How to extract the kernels? I’ve always cut the fruit into quarters, then used a knife to pry out the seeds. But, I watched my son Ben whack a pomegranate, tufted side down, hard on the cutting board, break it open and chuck the chunks into a bowl of water. The loosened seeds sank and the connecting bits of white pith floated, easily skimmed out. By the way, the juice stains (brown, not red), so protect your clothing.

Pomegranate juice is delightful in cocktails (a recipe is here). The jewel-like seeds make a festive addition to holiday dishes. One of my favorites is sliced oranges, red onions, pomegranates and serrano ham atop escarole or mesclum, with a vinaigrette made with Sherry vinegar and a touch of honey. Sometimes I add raw fennel for extra crunch.

The final touch: Leo adds pomegranate seeds to a festive salad. (Photo by D. Ellefson.)

In Spanish cuisine, pomegranates are used as a cooking medium for pork (in Mallorca) and as a lively garnish for tapa salads in Andalusia and Extremadura.

Solomillo de Cerdo con Salsa de Granadas
Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranate Sauce

Pomegranate cooked in a sauce does not keep its vibrant color. In this recipe, the kernels are sieved out of the cooked sauce and the dish garnished with reserved bright red pomegranate bits. Pomegranate molasses, a reduction of pomegranate juice, while not a Spanish ingredient, would intensify the flavors of this sauce.

2 (1-pound) pork tenderloins
salt and pepper
1 pomegranate
2 tablespoons olive oil or lard
½ cup dry Sherry
1/3 cup meat or chicken stock


Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper. Remove kernels from pomegranate, discarding the skin and white pith. Reserve a handful of the seeds for garnish.

Heat oil or lard in a skillet and brown the meat with the chopped onion. Add the pomegranate seeds to the meat with the Sherry, stock and additional salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, turning the pork occasionally.

Remove the meat and keep warm. Cook the sauce for 15 minutes more to reduce it. Sieve the sauce. Slice the tenderloins and serve with the sauce, garnished with reserved pomegranate seeds.

Serves 6.