Pork Stew An Easy One-Dish Dinner For Fall

Combining fall’s flavors into a single dish requires one ingredient as a base to complement all the others. Pork is the perfect start, excellent with cabbage and apples.

In the following recipe for Autumn Pork Stew With Spaetzle, I recommend using a tender, quick-cooking pork cut, such as pork tenderloin, so that the fruit and vegetables aren’t cooked to a mush before the pork is ready.

Spaetzle, a cross between a dumpling and a noodle, makes a great starch for this stew. The recipe is very fast and easy, but, if desired, packaged spaetzle is available in many supermarkets.

Autumn Pork Stew With Spaetzle

Spaetzle (recipe follows)

2 strips bacon

1 small garlic clove, smashed

1 small onion, vertically sliced

2 cups slivered red cabbage

8 ounces boneless pork, cut into 1/4-inch-wide strips about 1 inch long

3/4 cup apple juice

3/4 cup beef broth

1 small unpeeled apple, cored and sliced

1 tablespoon maple syrup

1/4 cup dried cranberries, optional

1 tablespoon flour

Salt, freshly ground black pepper

Prepare spaetzle. While it cooks, prepare stew.

Fry bacon in large skillet until crisp. Remove and set aside. Add garlic, onion and cabbage to skillet and saute in bacon fat until limp, about 5 minutes over medium-high heat. Push vegetables to side. Add pork strips and cook over high heat 1 minute per side or until well browned.

Pour in apple juice and scrape up any browned bits in skillet over high heat. Add beef broth and stir. Add apple slices and simmer 5 minutes. Add maple syrup and cranberries.

Place flour in cup. Spoon about 1/4 cup skillet liquid into flour and stir until smooth. Return this mixture to skillet and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened. Crumble bacon and stir into stew. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, spoon half the spaetzle onto each of 2 serving plates. Top each with half the stew.

Yield: 2 generous servings.

Spaetzle

1 tablespoon plus 1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon oil

3/4 cup flour

1/8 teaspoon baking powder

1 egg, lightly beaten

6 to 8 tablespoons milk

Fill 5-quart pan with water. Add 1 tablespoon salt and oil and bring to boil

Combine flour, remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt and baking powder in bowl. Stir well. Add egg and enough milk to make sticky batter.

When water comes to full boil, cook spaetzle. There are two easy ways ways to do this. You can spoon the batter into a colander (holes should be about 1/4-inch in diameter), hold the colander over the boiling water and press with the back of a spoon to force batter into water. Or, spoon batter onto cutting board. Using wet knife, slice dough sliver-thin and push into water. Dough will sink to bottom of pan. Stir once to loosen.

When dough floats to top, reduce heat to very gentle boil and cook 10 minutes. Drain well. If spaetzle is not going to be used immediately, toss with a little oil or butter to keep pieces from sticking together.

Yield: 2 servings.