Pork Picnic Roast with Apples and Sauerkraut

I wish I had a picture - but then again, this was one of those things where the flavor was wonderful, but a photo might not have done it justice.

I was celebrating the birthday of a good friend and wanted to make a special meal. We just took delivery of some fresh local pork - within the past 2 weeks, so pork was a strong possibility. Then I did our winter pickup from the CSA and got fresh-made sauerkraut - so a meal was born.

1 Pork Picnic Roast - Bone-in 4-5lb.
2-3 cups GOOD Sauerkraut - ours had caraway seeds and juniper berries flavoring it
3-4 tart apples
1 large onion
1/2 C wine - I used chianti, (red wine or cider vinegar can be subbed, but I'd use less)
1Tbsp Mustard (I used dijon, because that's what we had)
pepper
ground coriander

Seasonings to taste.

On the stove-top, I browned the roast on all sides in bacon fat reserved from our breakfast. I used minimal salt (in the form of adobo seasoning powder) for this and no pepper.

In a bowl I combined the peeled, cored, and finely chopped apple with minced onion, mustard, wine, pepper and coriander.

Once the roast was browned I placed it in a ceramic baking bowl I have from Pampered Chef - sort of like a tajien,


I spread the sauerkraut around the roast and the apple/onion mixture on top of that and a little on top of the roast. I put the baker lid on and placed it in a 350 oven until the internal temp was 130/135...then let it rest for about 10 minutes.

I served the pork sliced, with the kraut mixture and roasted rosemary & garlic potato/sweet potato combination on the side.

Everyone loved it, so I guess I have to write down the recipe so I can do it again! Lucky for me I have a place to do that!

Home-made Applesauce/Fruitsauce

When I first joined our local CSG (community supported garden), about 10 years ago, we received a little fruit, but certainly not an abundance.

There was a pint or so of stawberries and one of raspberries in the spring, and hearty kiwi if you were lucky, in the autumn.

This has been changing gradually.

The past year or 2 we've been seeing some peaches, some asian apples, and some paw-paw.

This year we also received pears and apples.

There is not an abundance of fruit per distribution for sure, and the autumn fruit is like what I was used to seeing from the "orchard" in my home yard as a child...smallish and quite blemished.

Certainly not apples/pears my kids would want to find in their lunchboxes.

So, being that we're a family that eats a largish amount of bottled applesauce with dinner all year long...thanks to my hubby's passing his love of it on to the kids....I decided to take my distribution and do something the whole family would enjoy.

A few weeks ago (I know..should have posted it then) I made my first batch of applesauce.

I cut the fruit and left all the skin/seeds intact and cooked it all. I added a small amount of sugar and spices (cinnamon, allspice, ginger) and then put it through a food mill at the end.

I got 3 pints out of that batch. 2 are gone, one is frozen.

So, when we received some more fruit, I decided to do it again. Now, this distribution had pears and paw-paws as well as apples and Asian apples, and I decided to make the sauce with it all.

In the picture above, the asian apples and pears are hard to distinguish from each other, and the paw-paws are in the lower portion of the picture.

Since things were busy over the weekend and I didn't get to do it then, I decided to make the applesauce via the crockpot method...overnight in the crockpot...and since I'd be dealing with the finished product in the morning as I was trying to get ready for work, I didn't want to have to put it through the food mill. So I peeled/cored/and seeded this time.

I added a tiny bit of water to the crockpot, but probably didn't have to.

Again I added a small amout of sugar (1/4 cup) and some spices to the pot. And in the morning we woke to a delicious apple aroma. I mashed it up with a fork, so it's chunky instead of smooth, and put it in a container. This batch made 2 pints and is even more delicious than the first.

So there you have it...two methods and two very delicious apple sauces ( I suppose you could also call the second one a chutney).