Chuletas a la Jardinera

Sophia requested last week that I make "that vegetable dish with the big pieces of meat in it." Hmm...I wonder what that might be? After asking a few questions, I determined that the pieces of meat she was referring to were pork chops, and the dish is one of my old standards, that I've made so many times I no longer measure any of the ingredients.

I first encountered this recipe a looong time ago, in a Pritikin Diet Book owned by one of my pre-college roommates. The "garden" in the original recipe came out of a can, and I suspect if I looked it up now I would barely recognize it. It's morphed over the years into a perfect seasonal dish: all the ingredients are in season at the same time. (We're getting to the end of zucchini season now, but I needed to use them up, and you don't want to know what my tomato backlog looked like: I canned 11 pints Monday, and used the leftovers for this dish. And the second round of green beans is still going.) The amounts listed are guesses, and I'm sure they vary; the recipe is pretty forgiving.

Chuletas a la jardinera (Pork Chops with the Garden)
     (For a vegan variation, Garbanzos a la jardinera is very good. I haven't tried it with any of the local beans, but I would be inclined to go with black or kidney.)

• 3-4 pork chops (if you're following the Pritikin Diet, cut the fat off)
• seasoning:
• garlic (1-2 cloves)
• oregano (1-2 tsp dried, or 1-2 T fresh)
• salt (1 tsp)
• black pepper (1/4-1/2 tsp)
• oil (enough to form a paste) (officially olive oil; I used the local sunflower oil this time)
• tomatoes, peeled and chopped (about a quart)
• bay leaf
• onion, coarsely chopped (1 large spanish, or 2 medium)
• green and/or wax beans, snapped and broken into bite size pieces (2 cups)
• zucchini and/or other summer squash, cut in bite size pieces (2 cups)
• (optional) corn
• (optional) red or green sweet pepper (I used 3/4 cup red pepper this time)
• additional seasoning to taste (same ingredients as above)

Make seasoning paste, rub on both sides of pork chops and brown. Add tomatoes, onions, and bay leaf, bring to a boil, and simmer approximately 15 minutes. Add beans and simmer another 15 minutes. Add squash and simmer another 10-15 minutes. (note: some summer squashes cook faster than zucchini, so if you want perfection you can add the zucchini first then wait 5-10 minutes before adding the summer squash.) Add (optional) corn and pepper and correct seasoning; simmer another 10 minutes or so. Dish is ready when beans are tender and squash starts to look translucent. Serve over pasta (I usually use corkscrews) or rice.

Menus 9/27:

• breakfast: oatmeal with raisins, peaches, maple syrup, and almond milk (Cayuga Pure, Thornbush, Black Diamond, Schoolyard Sugarbush, Bremner/CA)
• school lunch: peanut butter (exception) and jelly sandwich, carrots, sweet pepper, apples (Greenstar bakery and bulk local, Kestrel Perch, Sacred Seed, Littletree, my garden)
• my lunch: what lunch? I must have eaten something...
• snack: apples, raspberries, sweet pepper
• dinner: pork chops a la jardinera (Kingbird, my garden), rice pasta (exception), hedgehog mushrooms (gathered) with butter (Meadow Creek) and chives (my garden)
• dessert: the end of the apple pie (Littletree, Greenstar bulk local, Cayuga Pure, Meadow Creek, Bremner/CA)

Menus 9/28 (so far):

• breakfast: flapjacks with berry and maple syrup (Birkett Mills, Kestrel Perch, Schoolyard Sugarbush)
• school lunch: pork a la jardinera (leftover), apple, flapjack "sandwiches" with jelly