Happy Wednesday CFM friends! I hope you’ve been enjoying these last few INSANELY gorgeous days in Atlanta, and as a result I hope you have welcomed this very rainy and very Fall day with open arms. I’m currently holed up at my mom’s home taking care of her and her post knee replacement body. As I’m sitting here, I’m reminded of the powerful healing properties that naturally exist in the [certain] foods we consume. Last night, I cooked a big wok full of local veggies and Riverview Farms pork stir fry. It was so hearty and comforting and healthy. It was the first meal my mom ate post hospital and its easy to see the difference a meal makes. I’m not knocking hospital food, but wouldn’t it be truly amazing to partner hospitals and farmer’s markets??!!! Yes, it would.

Anyway, these are the days of hearty casseroles, comforting stews, and aromatic stir fry. We sauntered through the Grant Park Farmers Market  this past Sunday and had a field day with all the colorful produce that’s available right now. I immediately was drawn to the beautiful array of radishes at Crack in the Sidewalk Farmlet. These are either English Breakfast or Shunkyo Radishes, I don’t remember. Either way, through cooking them, a lot of that traditional radish spice comes out and adds a nice savory, but hint-o-tang addition to the stir fry. We then sauntered over to Riverview Farms where we picked up a lovely little Pork Shoulder Roast and a couple Delicata squash. And finally, we hit up Freewheel Farm and got a bag of this beautiful chard. All in all, we spent $26 to make this Stir Fry which came out to provide 5 full meals (maybe 3 because it’s so good you want to keep filling up your bowl). That is totally reasonable, right? Next week, I’m going to get into some more thoughts on price breakdown and efficient shopping at the market, but in the meantime, know that to put together a meal for 4, it can be done for around $25-30!

Local Veggie + Pork Stir fry

time 2.5 hours   servings 4-5

• 1 pork shoulder, marinated
• MARINADE: 1/4 cup soy sauce, 1/4 cup miso paste, salt + pepper to taste, 1/4 cup water, 1 clove smashed garlic
• 1 onion, minced
• 1 bunch radishes, greens removed and sliced
• 1 delicata squash, peeled and cubed
• 2-3 cups chard, roughly chopped and stems removed or chopped
• 1-2 cups brown rice, optional
• soy sauce to taste

1. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Marinade pork (this marinade is open for interpretation, I wanted to asian inspired flavors so that’s what I went with, but do what you like), and place into deep oven safe cooking dish. Add water to the dish and cover. Cook in oven for about 2 hours. The point of this is to low and slow cook this pork with the flavorful bone still attached. I am slightly undercooking it, so that once I remove it I will shop it up and add to the wok with the vegetables.

2. Cook rice and set aside.

3. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my wok. It was my grandparents that they got sometime in the 60’s or 70’s. It is an awesome heat source. If you don’t have a wok, just use a good non stick pan with a good amount of oil at a high heat. Once the oil is hot, add the onions and cook until translucent adding a little soy sauce for the sizzle. Cook the squash first as it’s the heartiest. Then add the radishes. Cook these pieces for about 10 minutes.

4. Remove the pork from the oven and slice into small bite size pieces. Add to the hot wok. Then throw in the chard and cook for another 5-8 minutes. Just before serving, toss in the rice and mix well.

This is an awesome dish to have as leftovers. The flavors show up even more!

As a side note, I found this salt and pepper duo at my mom’s and I think they are hysterical. Go Dawgs and may the dawgs be with you as you season your food this Fall! Happy cooking, and per usual, we look forward to seeing you at the markets this week! 

Cheers!