Crispy Baked Chickpeas etc.

This post aggregates a few concepts I like, but didn't feel were really substantial enough for their own posts:

Crispy Baked Chickpeas

Drain and rinse a can or two of chickpeas.  Cover in vinegar, bring to a boil, remove from heat and let sit for 20-30 minutes.  Drain, toss with olive oil and some seasonings, and bake about 45 minutes at 400 degrees.  (Original link)

This was the kicker to get me to put this post together.  I'd done baked chickpeas a few ways before; they were good but simple enough I didn't need to save the instructions or publicize it.  Trying to use up the bounty of homegrown apples, though, I sliced up a few (to go with the apple cider vinegar).  The sweet element really added to the flavor (especially since the vinegar can be overpowering).

Eggs Baked in Avocado

Halve your avocados, remove the pit, and scoop out some more space for an egg.  Season with salt, pepper, lime juice, etc.  Crack an egg into each half, and hey, season some more (chili powder, jalapeno, etc.).  Bake at 450 degrees about 10-12 minutes, until the egg white is appropriately set.  (Original link)

Another simple concept.  It's too bad, but you really have to scoop out some extra avocado pulp to make room for the egg.  I did not, so my first ones were a little messy...  Second time around, I made plenty of space for the egg, but neglected the stability factor and lost some of the egg the totally predictable rolling of the avocado halves :(  Still plenty of goodness left, and at least more photogenic:

Marinated Zucchini

Halve some small zucchini lengthwise (or quarter bigger ones).  Heat some olive oil in a skillet, and brown the zucchini a couple minutes on each side.  Whisk together three tbsps olive oil, one tbsp vinegar, and seasonings like garlic, salt & pepper, etc.  Toss with zucchini in a flat container and let marinate at least an hour.  (Original link)

Simple again - see the theme?  Also flexible, since you have plenty of room to add seasonings, apples, etc.  The vinaigrette ratio was also helpful for future reference!

Korvgryta

Pronunciation unclear, korvgryta is a Swedish sausage casserole.  Like other Scandinavian dishes, it's straightforward meat-and-potatoes; it may not be as tempting to poor Jansson, but that's a matter for a future post.  Here you go:

Recipe

1 lb sausage meat
2 onions, sliced
2 apples, sliced
4-5 potatoes, cooked and sliced

Start by boiling your potatoes.  Remove the sausage meat from the casings and brown in a heavy skillet.  Remove sausage but leave drippings; cook the onion.  Once they're golden brown and transparent, add the apple slices and cook briefly.  Butter a casserole dish and layer the potatoes, sausage, and onion/apple.  Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes.

Notes

Everything cooks separately, but it's the half-hour or so baking in the casserole that lets the flavors meld together wonderfully.  I don't think you have to be too selective with your choice of sausage; our jalapeno-cheddar added a nice spicy and (obviously) salty element to the mix.  The original recipe said it made four servings; we one-and-a-halved everything, and it stuffed four people nicely with a little left over.

Not much green in the recipe, so it needs a side for a well-rounded meal:

Sweet Potato & Apple

Sweet potatoes are great, lots of good ways to cook 'em.  I thought this recipe was worth trying:

Recipe

1 sweet potato
1 apple
1/4 c vegetable stock
butter

Slice the sweet potato and apple into thin semicircles.  Heat some butter and saute the sweet potato slices for a few minutes.  Then add the apple slices for another minute or two.  Pour in the stock, cover, and steam for a few minutes, until the liquid has mostly evaporated (and the sweet potatoes are soft).

Notes

I tried this one first as per the original recipe - with apple juice instead of vegetable stock - and it was way too sweet.  I wanted to try again with a more savory direction (including a chopped onion) and it was better.  But still not as good as hash or fries...

Apple Smothered Pork Chops

Every once in a while (usually when I haven't had a serving of Chipotle carnitas in a while), I feel like whipping up pork chops for dinner.  This recipe comes from a meat cookbook that's provided a couple strong recipes already.  I skipped straight to their version that subs in some apple and cider:

Recipe

4 bone-in pork chops
4 oz bacon (4 slices), chopped
2 tbsp flour
1 3/4 c apple cider
1 onion, halved & sliced
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled and sliced into thin wedges
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp fresh thyme, minced
2 bay leaves
oil, salt & pepper

1. Sauce: Fry up the bacon, then remove but leave as much of the grease as you can.  Reduce heat to medium low and whisk in the flour.  Cook, whisking frequently, until it's a rich brown (about 5 minutes).  Then whisk in the cider, increase heat, bring to a boil, then cover and remove from heat.
2. Chops: Heat a tbsp of oil in a skillet over high heat until smoking.  Sprinkle the pork chops with pepper, then put them in the skillet to brown (about 3 minutes per side).  Set aside.
3. Stew: In the same skillet, reduce heat to medium, add a tbsp oil and the onion, apple, 2 tbsp water and a sprinkle of salt.  Caramelize the onions (about 5 minutes), then stir in the garlic and thyme.  Then put the chops back in, cover with onion mixture, pour in the sauce, and add the bay leaves.  Simmer over low heat for about 30 minutes, or until you can stab the pork with a knife easily...
4. Gravy: Remove the pork chops to a serving plate.  Increase heat to medium high and simmer the sauce until it thickens into a gravy (about 5 minutes).
5. Serve: Serve the pork chops over a starch, pour over the gravy, and sprinkle with the bacon.

Notes

This one's a bit more labor-intensive than I'm usually looking for.  I definitely like the combined browning and stewing pork chop approach.  I may not have browned them quote enough (I felt like the times above were underestimations), but you do get some good flavor and keep it tender while not overcooking in the pan.

In the end,  I think this came out very well, with a better balance of sweet and savory than some other apple/cider-based recipes I've tried recently.  Sprinkling bacon on top is almost cheating, although I guess the grease plays a key role earlier on.  The recipe recommends egg noodles for a starch.  Here's the (somewhat crowded) final plate I ended up with: chops and gravy over spinach & goat cheese mashed potatoes.  No recipe for that side; just added the extras to the flakes...

Crockpot Apple Ginger Pork

I first tried this recipe a little while back at the convergence of a few themes of my cooking experimentation to that point - paleo recipes from CrossFit, getting use out of my crockpot, and trying to incorporate ginger.  This isn't my favorite crockpot pork roast preparation, but it's a solid recipe with distinctive sweet-but-not-too-sweet flavors.

The Recipe

2 lb pork roast
1 onion, sliced
2 apples, sliced
2/3 cup broth
1 tbsp honey
2 tbsp ginger, grated
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp pepper
1 garlic cloves, smashed
1 bay leaf

It's a crockpot recipe.  Put it all in there and cook for like 6-8 hours on high.

Notes

Because of my much lamented mini-crockpot I really had to cut back on the onion and apple just to fit everything.  And I used vegetable broth as the liquid base.  Otherwise, not much to improve on!  I would point out that the recipe doesn't specify a type of apple, but since it gets kind of mushed into the gravy it's not a big deal - I just lean toward something sweet versus tart.

Here's the finished product - that crispy green on the side is a batch of kale chips:

Apple Onion Pork with Butternut Squash

Fall is in the air, but maybe not enough of an autumn chill to turn entirely to soups and stews and such...  Instead, we started with some seasonal produce with this recipe.  It's a bit of an ambitious undertaking, appropriate for a group cooking and eating evening.  Butternut squash is always a bit of an ordeal, and this preparation took longer than anticipated to cook.  On the plus side, though, the crockpot can really turn not-quite-ripe squash into a pleasant goo...  It was a shame it wasn't ready with the rest of the entree, though, because the pork and apple-onion relish (?) really could have used another savory component, and it was not nearly sweet enough to pass off as a dessert.  But it was interesting and fun, and now that I've rambled on, I guess trying to provide those thousand words to make up for no picture...  But yeah, no picture :(