I've cooked a lot of food.  I have been very pleased with most of it.  Most.  I am an absolute perfectionist in this area of my life.  A recent blog post by Local In Season contributing writer, Jane Ward, helped me come face to face with this need to be "perfect." I decided that I am fine with this.  After all, wouldn't you want all of your meals prepared for you by a perfectionist?  I delight in making a simple bowl of ice cream into one perfect scoop, flanked by two or three chocolate covered pretzels, and either sprinkled with fresh ground cinnamon or, when the night calls for it, a dash of Bailey's Irish Creme.  Ice cream, however, is not the order of the day.  The dish I am presenting here, Pork Rib Confit, was a "first-time" recipe and represents, hands down, the best dish I have ever made. It was, in my estimation, perfect.

In the hustle and bustle of the day to day, it's hard to commit to braising.  Arriving home after work, one might not immediately feel the desire to get involved in a 3-plus-hour recipe.  When it boils down to it, however, braising is a fairly "hands-off" technique.  Searing the meat, an occasional basting, and a quick finish on the grill is about all it takes.  That aside, braises are wonderful weekend fare. Once the ribs are in the oven, you can feel free to go outside and fill the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth lawn and leaf bag in the yard, or even head to your closest high school football game. On the other hand, there is something really special about what happens to your kitchen while the braise does its work.  

Dropping by the the Farm Stand at Verrill Farm on an unseasonably warm November day, I was greeted at the door by a wonderful array of winter squash, piled high in a jumble of overlooked abundance. Other shoppers browsed the bins and tables loaded with fruits and roots but seemed to assume the squash were decorative, as no one lingered to pick over the cornucopia. Winter squash, with their odd shapes and knobby exteriors, tend to be somewhat daunting to the modern cook, and are therefore generally underused and underappreciated. Intimidating at first, these vegetables relent to heat and give up a wonderful sweetness that can be either complimented or contrasted. When cooked, squash develops a consistency and flavor akin to a softer and less aggressive sweet potato. Butternut squash is simply one of innumerable varieties of winter squash and the most unassuming in its pear-shaped and permanently tanned appearance. 

Are you a patient home cook?  Do you perseverate over perfect plating? Are you highly adept at cubing vegetables to 1-inch uniformity?  If these questions resonate with you then you will love this preparation. If these questions frighten you, fear not and sit tight. The following recipe is very straightforward, and will deliver a delicious fall side dish or appetizer with a range of plating options from the most basic to the most precise. At its heart, this is a roasted fall vegetable dish, so use what looks best at the market.  My last trip presented me with red beets, yellow turnips, and butternut squash. I happened upon some fresh rosemary as well.  It was actually the rosemary that started the roasted vegetables wheels turning. When I got back to the kitchen, I laid out my vegetables on the cutting board, sharpened my knife, and got ready to spend some time with these ingredients.  As I looked at my red, orange, and yellow ingredients, I recognized that I had a nice color palette from which to work, so I decided to create a mosaic.