Pork Steaks and Baked Apples

• Salt and coarsely ground black pepper
• Pinch cayenne
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 4 crisp apples, like Cortland or Macoun, skin on, cored and cut into eighths
• 1/2 cup semisweet white wine, like muscatel or off-dry riesling
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• About 1 1/2 to 2 pounds 1-inch thick pork steaks, cut from the boneless loin or shoulder
• Flour for dusting
• 1 cup fruity but sturdy red wine, like Barolo or a ready-to-drink Cabernet

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine a large pinch of salt with a few grindings of pepper, the cayenne and garlic, and sprinkle apples with this mixture.
3. Put apples in a baking dish, pour white wine around them, and bake until apples are shriveled but moist, about 15 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, heat oil over medium heat in a skillet large enough to hold pork.
5. Dust pork lightly with flour and sear it on both sides for a total of just a minute or so; it need not become brown.
6. Add red wine and adjust heat so mixture boils energetically.
7. Cook pork, turning occasionally, until it gains a beautiful deep color, is cooked through and wine reduces to a syrup; about 10 minutes.
8. Season meat with salt and pepper.
9. Serve pork with red wine sauce spooned over it, next to apples, with a little of the white wine they cooked in.

salt, cayenne, garlic, crisp apples, semisweet white wine, extra virgin olive oil, pork, flour, red wine

Taken from cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/12018 (may not work)