Pork and Squash Chili

This is meal #3 from my pork butt roast. My second meal was a pureed roasted vegetable soup with thinly sliced pork on a bun with barbecue sauce.

Pork and squash are a good match. It has a TexMex feel about it with chilis and pepitas. The family will never think this is leftovers.

Guajillo and pasilla peppers are not hot. They are considered medium on the Scoville scale. Add a hot chili pepper such as a serrano, aleppo or habenero if you like spicy food.

Pork and Squash Chili

2 dried quajillo chilis
1 dried pastilla chili
1/4 c. pepitas (pumpkin seeds)
2 c. cubed cooked pork butt roast
1/2 butternut squash, peeled and sliced
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 tsp. sea salt
1 tsp. ground cumin
grating of black pepper
1 clove garlic
2 c. hot water
1 onion, roughly chopped

Preheat oven to 350F with cast iron skillet inside.

Toast pepitas in skillet in oven and set aside. Toast dried peppers, seeds and stem removed. Add toasted peppers, salt, cumin, garlic, 1/4 c. of the chopped onion to blender. Add hot water and let sit for 10 minutes. Puree.

Add vegetable oil to skillet. Add onions and squash and place in preheated oven for about 10 minutes to start cooking. Add cubed pork and pureed chili sauce. Return to oven until the squash is tender. Serve garnished with toasted pepitas.

Roasted Vegetables and Pork Roast Dinner in a Bowl

This is yesterday's pork roast dinner in a bowl. The flavours are warm and rich in this puree. I made a lot of roasted vegetables with the pork roast. Squash, fennel, carrots and potatoes were placed alongside the cumin scented meat. After the meal I put all the leftover vegetables in my blender. I added water to the roasting pan and scraped up all the tasty bits and added this to the blender. A grating of black pepper and a dash of salt completed this soup. What could be easier?

Pork Butt (or also known as Pork Shoulder) Oven Roast

I like cooking with the less tender cuts. Quite often they have the best flavour. Traditionally a braise or other moist heat method, such as a slow cooker, is used but I have done this at 400F in the oven.

The recipe comes from a person I met on Chowhound many years ago. He is of Mexican heritage and shared this amazing and simple way to make a beautifully tender and juicy pork butt roast. I questioned placing the meat 'fat side down' but it works. This cut has a lot of fat marbling. When the roast is fully cooked, turn it over and serve it fat side up. Because it was on the bottom of the pan the fat side has nice carmelization. The pan juices and bits stuck to the bottom can be used to make a gravy.

This is a good 'cook once, eat three times' recipe. The leftover meat can be made into a wonderful pulled pork sandwich and the root vegetables can be pureed into a soup. Other ideas for leftovers are tacos, burritos, empanadas or a very flavourful hunter's stew.

Pork Butt Oven Roast

Preheat oven to 400F. Prepare the meat by rinsing and patting dry with paper towels. Drizzle with oil. I used sunflower oil because that is what I had but any vegetable oil would be fine. Season generously with sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and ground cumin. Rub in all over.

Place meat in roaster fat side down. Cover and seal with aluminum foil. Bake at 400F for about 4 hours for a 5 lb roast. In the last hour add cut up vegetables such as squash, carrots, potatoes and fennel in the pan surrounding the meat.

Persimmon Bourbon Pecan Cake

Persimmons are intriguing. They are exotic and ugly at the same time. Well, they are beautiful but before you can eat them or use them, they must sit and ripen until they look like they should be thrown to the pigs. Imagine my delight when I saw them on sale 50% off because they were becoming over-ripe. Perfect.

I am by no means an expert on persimmons and my very trusted source David Lebovitz explains the differences nicely in his blog. My bag of half price persimmons contained one hachiya and two fuyu. I just combined them for this recipe.

You can certainly substitute flours, oils and sugars in this recipe. Just a note, however, cane sugar is much sweeter than beet sugar. I would increase the sugar to 1 cup if you are using beet sugar. And if alcohol is not in your diet, substitute with apple juice.

I bought these little silicon baking cups a while back and have never used them. Today I tried them with this dough. No greasing the mould, just fill full and bake. They come out of the mould with a little twist. Worked great. However there wasn't as much carmelization leaving a paler exterior.

This cake is delicious the day it is made but leaving it sit for a day or two allows the flavours and the moistness of the persimmons to develop.

Persimmon Bourbon Pecan Cake

3/4 cup cane sugar
1/2 cup sunflower oil
1 cup persimmon puree
2 large free range eggs
1 teaspoon pure Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon Indonesian Korintje Cassia Cinnamon
 1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 freshly grated nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups organic white flour
1/2 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Measure sugar, oil and persimmon puree into a large mixing bowl. Beat with whip attachment until well blended. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat again. In another bowl blend the remainder of the ingredients. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix only until blended.

Pour into prepared baking pans. Bake at 350F until done. A toothpick inserted will come out clean when the cake is done. The length of time depends upon the size of the pan. A 10 inch pan will take about 30 minutes to bake.

Drive in the Country...heading west

Can I call it a drive in the country if I never leave the Trans Canada Highway?

That question is soon answered after a leisurely coffee and I leave for my destination only two hours west. I love the winter colours of  blue skies, yellow dried grasses and white snow. Straw stubble is exposed through the snow and the colour tells me what crop was harvested on the land – wheat, canola, flax. A jumble of childhood farm memories flood in.

It is quiet on the highway and I enjoy the scenery. It is hardly flat, as most people think. I am intrigued by the Coteau Hills to the south. They continue to hold mystery for me as they hide the beautiful scenery of the Frenchman River Valley beyond. Some call it the bench. It is a part of the Missouri plateau. This landscape carries all the way through to Medicine Hat, my destination.

A summer time shot.

As I wonder if I will see any wildlife today, a herd of about 30 antelope bound across the highway causing a semi-trailer truck to make a quick stop. We watch as they clear the fence and continue north. It is very surreal when this happens. And it happens a lot. Not all are so lucky as today.

It is very difficult to see but there are about 100 antelope pasturing in this field. Even stopping my car puts them on high alert so there was no way I could get closer for a better shot. Yes, I know it looks flat here! There is a corridor along the highway that is flat!

The short winter days are leaving us and allowing sunlight earlier in the morning. As I leave Swift Current the sun is still close to the eastern horizon but by the time I cross the provincial border it warms my cheek.

There is a road marker just before Webb, SK. In 1980 there was a fiery crash that claimed the lives of 22 men in their late teens and early 20’s, mostly from Newfoundland and Manitoba. They were a steel gang bussing to work on the CPR. This remains one of the worst bus crashes in Canadian history. Reading the story brings tears. A memorial cross of rails was erected in 2007 in memory.

Maple Creek has a lovely set of custom made wrought iron signs on the roadside to lure travellers into town. Maple Creek is as quaint as a western town can be. Rodeos are held in most towns and the oldest in the province is not far from here. It is the Murraydale Rodeo. It isn’t professional but more like a community picnic. Children who are tough as nails chase frisky calves around the corral and ride horses as instincively as learning to walk.

CBC Radio 2 soon becomes staticky and I hit the tuner. Next up is CKUA public radio from Alberta. Lucky me. There is lovely classical music set to the stillness of the gently rolling hills.

On the west side of the Cypress Hills, straddling the Saskatchewan/Alberta border is the historic Reesor Ranch. I stayed overnight back in 2007. It is a working ranch where the kitchen serves coffee with heavy cream. As a city girl I had never thought to use anything richer than coffee cream. Laying on the virgin prairie and gazing at the night sky I saw a breathtaking display of constellations I hadn’t seen since I was a child on the farm.

I do my business in the Hat first before I explore. I chose to have lunch downtown rather than on the highway. It is only a 5-minute drive to this historic city centre. You can see the two economic booms through the architecture – 1912 and 1980’s. Although there are a lot of store vacancies the downtown is vibrant. As with all towns of this era the train runs right through it. I have never been on the other side of the tracks until today.

This pop-up park dressed up a vacant lot on main street. In a couple of months it will move to another site. This is a sign of an engaged community.

Today I am returning to the Medalta Pottery factory. My last visit was in the 1970’s when my father took me on a vacation west to Banff during my university break. He stopped here and we had the tour. Although my memory is foggy I can tell that much has changed. It is a very polished exhibit and a real asset to the community. The pictures say it all.

This is a true excavation of one of the kilns. Much was learned about the use and construction.

Interesting.

Lettuce and vegetables? Really?

A display of crocks in a kiln room.

The displays of the products produced at this factory was fascinating. There were commemorative pieces, huge pieces, custom pieces and then this, the restaurant-ware many of us grew up with.

This National Historic Site is also nurturing today's artists with a program of classes for all levels of skill. This gallery shows some of the recent works completed here.

It is now about 4pm and time to head home. Living in my corner of the province one should  travel with a passport. It’s only a couple of hours to the US border with a whole new, but not that different, array of adventures.  It is always a temptation but there are too many drives I haven’t made yet on this side of the 49^th.

Hearty Beef Barley Soup with a Classic Club Sandwich

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I have some of the best food when I visit my father in central British Columbia. His area is a magnet for the artistic and adventurous. I remember an outstanding Italian meal quite a few years ago. The Cariboo has a calling that many cannot resist.

Last year I visited and we noshed at another of his favourite places. The food was simple but simply delicious. I wonder if he knows how lucky he is. I have recreated the dishes in these recipes.

This soup recipe is delicious. I find that the pearl barley will thicken up this soup nicely without added flour. I tried adding the carrots with the celery and onions before pressure cooking but they were overcooked and tasted bitter. Leave the carrots to add later. The barley and carrots take about the same length of time to cook.

Beef Barley Soup

1 tbsp. olive oil 15 mL

2 lb. beef oxtails or short ribs 1 kg

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 leeks, chopped, white and light green parts

4 carrots , diced

1 c. yellow onion, chopped 250 mL

2 stalks celery, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 sprigs fresh thyme leaves

3 bay leaves

10 c. low sodium beef broth 2.5 L

1 c. pearled barley 250 mL

Heat olive oil in pressure cooker and brown meat. Add leeks, onion, celery, thyme and garlic and 10 cups of water. Cook in pressure cooker for 15 minutes. Cool. Shred meat and remove bones.

Add barley and carrots and cook for another 15 or 20 minutes, until tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve hot. Yield: 6 servings.

Classic Club Sandwich

3 slices bread for each sandwich

Mayonnaise

Bacon, tomatoes, lettuce

Thinly sliced cooked chicken or turkey, ham and cheddar cheese

Lightly toast the bread. Lay first slice on cutting board and spread with mayonnaise. Add sliced fresh tomatoes, salt and pepper to taste, 2 strips of crispy bacon, slice of turkey and lettuce. Add second slice of bread and spread with mayonnaise. Layer ham, cheese and more lettuce. Spread third piece of bread with mayonnaise and place, mayonnaise side down on top. Slice in half diagonally and secure each with a skewer or long toothpick. Garnish with olives or pickles, if desired.