dinner with nora

another adventure in cooking meat! that is, meat that requires actual attention and possibly skill (up for debate). on the menu: sauteed pork chops with sour cherry sauce, boiled corn, and the oat-granola pie that just won the pillsbury bakeoff contest (curiosity...).

unfortunately, nora and i were too full by the time we were finished with the pork chops and corn to actually eat the pie, which involves butter, sugar, corn syrup, crushed granola bars, and oats. weird, eh? that's what i thought, too. i'll have some when i go home after work today...

the pork chops were a hit! well, at least, with me and nora. mary didn't like the sauce, i think - which had a savory-sweet taste to it. i liked the addition of the cinnamon, which at first smell was too much, but mellowed out as you added the stock and simmered it for a while. i was surprised that the flour didn't clump; in my experience it always does. perhaps the clumps are all hiding at the bottom of the pan... anyway, back to the sauce. lots of depth, and i do believe this is due to more chicken stock than the recipe called for (what is the logic of selling stock in 2-cup cans, if you only ever need 1 cup???) and deglazing the chop pan into the sauce. we also used onions instead of shallots, white wine instead of red, and omitted the lime juice and cornstarch (this was a recipe from epicurious) and it came out great.

sauteeing the pork chops was also fairly successful. i would like to add a point here, that nonstick pans are the devil (in addition to kitchen aids and bread makers). you will never get as beautiful a fond or as wonderful browning with nonstick as you will with a normal pan (this is actually proven). anyway, the chops sizzled nicely, and browned better than any pork chop i've cooked before. come to think of it, i have never made pork chops before. we had some issues figuring out if they were done, though. in the end, we stuck a knife into the middle of each one and peered inside as if we were about to start surgery or something. we couldn't just press the meat and see if the juices ran pink because the fond turned the liquid tan. i don't know how this happened, but we ended up not overcooking them. and they were lovely! i wonder if it would make a difference to brine the chops beforehand.

oh, this is unrelated to this post, but on the rhubarb cake: it tasted much better when all of the components were combined...actually it was quite good the day after - all moist from the compote.

our version of the recipe:

sauteed pork chops with sour cherry sauce
2 1 1/4-inch thick pork chops (really you could make 3 or 4 chops)
salt and pepper
vegetable oil

3T balsamic vinegar
3T sugar
1/2c minced onion
3/4c white wine
1/2t to 1t cinnamon
1 can chicken broth
1 lb cherries, halved and pitted
1/2c flour

[1] heat the balsamic vinegar and sugar in a large saucepan and reduce the mixture to a glaze. add onion, white wine, and cinnamon (i can't remember how much i added...3-4 shakes - don't add too much!), and cook until reduced to 1/4c.

[2] add chicken broth and cherries and let simmer to reduce the sauce while you cook the chops. stir occasionally.

[3] heat 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons oil in a skillet. rub each chop with oil, then salt and (freshly ground) pepper. cook the chops on medium to medium-high heat, 5-6 minutes each side. remove to a plate and tent with foil.

[4] deglaze the pan with either wine or water; pour the fond liquid into the sauce.

[5] let sauce simmer down to about 3-4 cups of liquid. cherries should be fully cooked and limp. sprinkle flour in by small handfuls, stirring to make sure flour doesn't clump. continue to add flour until sauce reaches desired consistency (1/2c in my case). let cook 1-2 minutes further to fully cook flour.

[6] arrange chops on a plate and spoon sauce over. you will have leftover sauce, but that is never a problem...