Monday, October 17, 2016

Happy Autumn! For all you apple pickers that can't bake or don't like sweets- pork and apple tortellini soup

Ingredients:

  • 2.3 lbs boneless pork loin, cut into large cubes for browning (mine came out into 12 pieces)

  • 4 small apples, peeled, cored, and cubed (tiny apples in the northeast this year due to drought, use less for larger apples. I believe mine were cortland/macintosh)

  • 1 medium yellow onion, finely diced

  • 6 cloves garlic, minced (I'm a fiend)

  • 1 inch fresh ginger, minced

  • 2 9oz packages refrigerated 4 cheese tortellini

  • 1 bunch dinosaur/lacinato kale, center rib cut out and leaves sliced into strips

  • 1 cup white wine

  • 1.5 tbsp butter

  • 4 cups beef broth/stock

  • 2 or 3 sprigs fresh rosemary

  • 1 or 2 tsp each dried basil, thyme, and parsley

  • red pepper flakes, cayenne, ancho, chili powder, s&p to taste

For the pork, eyeballed seasonings:

  • s&p

  • cayenne

  • chili powder

  • ancho powder

  • ground ginger

  • garlic powder

  • cinnamon

  • 1/2 cup Apple cider vinegar

  • 2 tbsp olive oil, divided

Directions:

  1. Cube up pork loin and cover/toss with dry seasonings. Fry pork with half of olive oil ( I had leftover bacon grease on hand and used that) in cast iron pan until browned. Transfer browned pork into instant pot (could be adapted for other cooking methods) atop other tbsp olive oil and all cider vinegar. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes.

  2. While the pork is going, dice onion and apples, mince garlic and ginger, and slice kale. When pork is finished, remove to a bowl without juices and shred.

  3. Melt butter in large pot and add onion. Cook until translucent, add fresh ginger and garlic. Fry until fragrant and there's some brown going on the pot. Add half the white wine, bring to a simmer and peel up brown bits. Add shredded pork, stir, then don't touch for about five minutes at high heat. Add the rest of the wine and deglaze.

  4. Add beef broth/stock, dried basil/parsley/thyme, and top with rosemary sprigs. Bring to boil, reduce to simmer, and cover for about ten minutes.

  5. Remove rosemary sprigs. You may want to add more water at this step, I ended up adding about 2 cups. Stir and taste for seasoning. Add any/all suggested seasonings to taste (mine really needed some spice). Add apples and kale, simmer uncovered for 5-10 minutes (when apples are just shy of desired doneness), stirring occasionally.

  6. Bring to boil, check your liquid level at this point and add more if necessary, and cook tortellini according to package directions. Mine were 4 minutes.

  7. Give it a few minutes to cool, and serve!

This is a great way to use up some of those apples for something savory! I'm not much for sweets, but came home with a lot of apples from the orchard this weekend (woops). This recipe could be easily adapted for other cooking methods and vegetables if you're not into kale. I love to have lots of herbs and spices in my food, so if your taste buds work better than mine feel free to turn it down. I've also been obsessed with tortellini recently so this is what I came up with. Hope you enjoy!



bon appetit

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