My twice-yearly shopping at Ikea always means a couple of jars of Lingonberry Preserves. We have almost as many flavors of jam and preserves in the ‘fridge and in the cabinets as we do mustards. I like my sweet and I like my savory.
Back home there is a small supermarket chain named Andronico’s. Great food with fairly high prices, but unsurpassed quality. The original “you get what you pay for” type of store. Their sandwich/deli area had the best turkey sandwich with fresh-roasted turkey, spicy mustard – and lingonberry preserves. It was the most excellent sandwich. they had a whole wheat french roll that was just the perfect container for the fabulous fillings. I miss that sandwich!
But I digress…
With two jars of Lingonberry preserves (and one cloudberry and one gooseberry!) that sweet/savory taste was calling to me… Years and years (and years) ago when I worked at the Hyatt Lake Tahoe, we had duck with a lingonberry sauce at Hugo’s. I didn’t have any duck at home, but I had pork chops. That sauce started with a classic demi-glace that I was not about to start making at home an hour before I wanted to eat, but I’ve done quick wine and stock reductions and figured this was a perfect time to do another!
Lingonberry Sauce
- 2 cups red wine
- 2 cups beef stock
- 2 cups chicken stock
- 1 cup lingonberry preserves
- 1/2 tsp tarragon
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp butter mixed with 1 tbsp flour
Put wine and both broths in a pot, boil, and reduce to 1 cup. Stir in lingonberry preserves and tarragon. Heat through. Thicken with flour/butter paste. Taste for seasoning.
Really simple. Really!
And since we were having pork chops with lingonberries, I decided we needed Pumpkin Polenta to go along with it. Victor has been laughing at me because every year I go on a huge pumpkin kick and serve it in some fashion at least three times a week for a month or more. This pumpkin polenta was just another in a long line of pumpkin recipes that have been appearing this year…
Pumpkin Polenta
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
- 1 tbsp butter
- 1 cup pumpkin puree
- 2/3 cup polenta
- salt and pepper to taste
Bring chicken broth, cream, butter, salt, pepper, and pumpkin to a boil. Slowly stir in polenta. Reduce heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked. (I used a really coarse polenta that takes about 45 minutes. Finer-grained polenta will take less time.)
I pan-fried the pork chops in a bit of olive oil, S&P.
I steamed the brussel’s sprouts and then browned in a skillet with butter and a dusting of Honey Dust.
I dirtied four pans. It was worth every one of them!