Pork Chops with Apple Cider Sauce

Apologies for the poor picture quality. It's one thing to take a photo of food when it's just my DH and myself. He teases me about it, and loves to regale people with examples of when he's poised over his lovely plate of steaming food and I rush in with my camera and yell "wait!" It's another when we have a table full of guests and I'm poking around trying to take pictures in front of them. Tacky, tacky. So I snapped this picture on my own plate, as surreptitiously as possible, so it was a bit dark at our candlelit dining table.


My dinner menu the other night, when we entertained 4 friends for dinner:

• Hot & Spicy Tofu Herb Dip
• Manchego and Brie cheese on a slate with crackers
• Pork Chops with Apples and an Apple Cider Sauce
• Red Cabbage with Apples & Chestnuts
• Mashed Potatoes with Mascarpone
• Lemon Velvet Ice Cream with BLUE CHIP Chocolate Chip Cookies and Harlequin Pinwheel Cookies

As usual, I started my menu plan with the main entree. It needed to be the set of 6 pork chops I had in the freezer from Niman Ranch. I've mentioned theis meat producer before - they are a small independent farm that raises livestock the old-fashioned way. No growth hormones. Natural feed, no additives. All that good stuff. I'm on their email notification list, so every time they have a sale, I know about it. Mostly I've ordered pork, but also their steaks too. I'm crazy about their bacon, but it's carried at my local Trader Joe's at a pretty good price.

Everything I've ordered from Niman ranch has been exceptionally good. Worth the price? Well, I guess it's relative. Compared to grocery chain meat, this is just far and away better. But if you're on a budget, probably not. I don't order all my meat from them - just special stuff. If you happen to decide to try them out - do wait for a sale - and make sure they pack in small packages (like 2 pork chops per pkg). That's why I hadn't defrosted these before, because I needed to wait for an occasion when I had exactly 6 people.

Because pork is raised so leanly now, there isn't as much fat to keep the meat moist. So I always brine pork. I've tried several recipes, but my current favorite is a mix that I buy at Whole Foods called V Traditional Brining Blend, and V Spicy Brining Blend. They come in 12.7 ounce jars. If you prepare the brine per the instructions you'll likely use most of a jar. I disregard those instructions and make a much smaller solution. This time I used about 2 tablespoons of brining salt and dissolved it in about a cup of boiling water, then added ice cubes to cool it off quickly. Usually I stick my finger in the brine to taste the saltiness - you want it to be salty, but not overwhelmingly salty, otherwise your meat will become the same. Then I immersed the pork in the brine. If time is of an essence, I'll put them in my aerator (a plastic container that removes the air by vacuum pump and supposedly increase the marinating ability chop-chop). That I did, and let them rest in the refrigerator for about 6 hours or so. I removed them once and turned them over in the liquid, since the brine didn't completely cover the chops.

I pan-seared the chops, then used a probe thermometer so I'd know exactly when the meat reached 145 degrees F. Worked like a charm. Result: these chops were just "the best." And America's Test Kitchen scored a winner with the sauce recipe. Although, next time I will probably thicken the sauce some with some cornstarch. Even though I reduced it down, it was still a bit thin. But, Niman Ranch scored a touchdown with the meat. One great dinner.

Pork Chops with Apple Cider Sauce Sauce
Recipe By: America's Test Kitchen
Servings: 4
32 ounces boneless pork top loin chops -- 4 chops, about 1 1/2 inches thick
Salt & pepper to taste
APPLE CIDER SAUCE:
1 1/2 cups apple cider -- or apple juice
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
2 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 whole cinnamon stick
4 tablespoons unsalted butter -- cut into 4 pieces
2 large shallots -- minced, about 1/2 cup
1 whole tart apple -- Granny Smith, peeled, cored, sliced
1/4 cup Calvados -- or apple flavored brandy
1 teaspoon fresh thyme -- minced
Salt and pepper to taste
1. Brine the pork chops with a mixture of your choice.
2. Combine cider, chicken broth, and cinnamon stick in a medium saucepan. Simmer over medium-high heat until the liquid is reduced to one cup, about 10-15 minutes. Remove cinnamon stick and discard. Set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 425. Drain brine from pork chops, dry thoroughly, then season pork chops with pepper. Heat a heavy saute pan and add about 1 tablespoon of olive oil to pan. Quickly sear both sides of the pork until caramelized and golden brown. Remove chops to a heatproof pan, insert meat thermometer and bake until the pork reaches 145 degrees F. Remove from oven and loosely place a piece of foil over the top while finishing the sauce.
4. While pork is baking, in the same skillet you seared the pork, add a tablespoon of butter. Heat under medium-high heat, and when it's melted and foam subsides, add shallots and apple. Cook, stirring occasionally until softened and beginning to brown. Remove from heat and add the Calvados. Return to heat and cook about one minute, scraping bottom of pan with a wooden spoon to loosen browned bits. Add the reduced cider mixture and simmer until thickened slightly, and reduced to about 1 1/4 cups, about 3-5 minutes. Off heat whisk in remaining 3 tablespoons of butter, and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.
5. Pour sauce with apples over each piece of pork and serve immediately.
NOTES : You might want to thicken the sauce more than the recipe indicates by using a tablespoon of cornstarch and a bit of water. Heat through until thickened.
Per Serving: 478 Calories; 22g Fat (44.3% calories from fat); 44g Protein; 19g Carbohydrate; 3g Dietary Fiber; 133mg Cholesterol; 100mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 6 Lean Meat; 0 Vegetable; 1 Fruit; 2 1/2 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.
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Sauteed Chicken with Red Wine Vinegar Sauce

When my DH says this is a keeper, I listen up. He doesn't say those words all that often. He enjoys my cooking and does tell me all the time how much he appreciates this dish or that. But those particular words just don't come out of his mouth frequently. I heard them for this dish. He was intrigued enough by the appearance to ask me what was in it, how I cooked it. He keeps thinking that one of these days when he takes a several-day sailing trip on our boat, going out to Catalina, or one of the other islands within sailing distance of our shores, that he's going to cook a nice dinner for his crew. (I've probably mentioned it before, but I don't go on these jaunts because I get deathly seasick, or I'm so drugged up with Dramamine that I don't function much, or suffer from very blurred vision if I use the scopalamine patch. All in all, I just don't go. DH reminds me occasionally that he didn't marry me for my sailing abilities. That's for sure. He also didn't marry me for my dancing style, either, but that's another story.)

So anyway, he was curious about the chicken and nearly licked the plate. The recipe came from a restaurant out in our California desert - a French place called Cuistot. We've eaten there several times, and enjoyed the food. A reader wrote into the Los Angeles Times (December 12, 2007) asking them to get the recipe, which the chef provided. I believe the article said this is a common bistro kind of preparation. It's easy - from start to finish it took me about 45 minutes, with 25 of those minutes the chicken was in the oven. You heat the oven to a phenomenal 500 degrees F. Yikes. But it works. If you have a heavy-duty skillet that can withstand that kind of heat, go for it (that's what the recipe indicates). I wasn't sure enough to subject my Look brand nonstick skillet to that temp, so after browning the chicken pieces I popped them in an ovenproof pan. Then I deglazed the browning skillet and made the sauce while the chicken was baking. It sped up the dinner process since I was able to take the chicken directly from the oven to the plate and spooned sauce on it immediately with a bit of the drippings from the blazing hot pan.

This is the kind of dinner you could throw together quickly - providing you have shallots on hand and fresh tomatoes. Most home kitchens would have the garlic, butter, red wine, vinegar and chicken broth. I forgot to add the garnish in my haste to get the plates on the table.

Cook's Notes: I diverged just a little - I sliced the garlic (as usual, I didn't read the recipe real well when I started - sheepish grin here), but discarded it after baking, since it was for flavor, not eating anyway. I also used chicken thighs and breasts, because that's what I had on hand. Surely in my cache of vinegars I have cabernet vinegar, but in my haste I decided not to hunker down on the floor perusing for bottles behind bottles. And, I cooked the sauce longer than I should have - I kept reducing the liquid, but I'd already put in the tomatoes, so they weren't just flash fried and still fresh-looking. Tasted great, though. We had the leftovers for dinner last night. DH again mentioned this chicken was "wow" in his book. We both agreed, though, that more sauce is needed, so next time I'll double that part.

You see, I was late getting home - went to see Kite Runner at 3:55 and didn't get out of the movie until 6:15. And, oh my goodness, was that a movie! I'd read the book a year or two ago, right after it came out. The photography was excellent - even though it was filmed mostly in China. The bulk of the real story takes place in Kabul, Afghanistan and Pakistan, but it certainly looked authentic. The story is heart-wrenching to say the very least about it. Highly recommended. And, of course, the book is better, but I thought the movie was exceptionally well done.

So, after a 30-minute drive home, it was late for dinner before I even started. Bang, clang, and I served it in a jiffy. And now this will go into the KEEPERS file. DH even asked that the next time this is on the menu, he'd like to make it. Now that makes this a real red-letter dinner! He's never said that. Ever.

Sautéed Chicken with Red Wine Vinegar Sauce
Recipe: Cuistot Restaurant, Palm Desert, California, via the Los Angeles Times
Servings: 4
4 pieces chicken breasts -- skin-on chicken breasts or whole legs
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons butter -- divided
4 whole garlic cloves -- skin-on
2 tablespoons chopped shallots
3 tablespoons red wine
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup chicken broth
2 whole plum tomatoes -- peeled, seeded and diced

Chopped chives or parsley for garnish
1. Heat the oven to 500 degrees. Sprinkle each piece of chicken lightly on each side with one-eighth teaspoon salt and a grind or two of pepper.
2. Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large ovenproof skillet. Add the chicken, skin-side down, along with the garlic cloves. Sauté over medium-high heat, until the skin is golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Turn the chicken and repeat on the other side.
3. Place the pan, with the chicken skin-side up, in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until cooked through. The meat will be firm and the juices will run clear, and a thermometer inserted will read 165 degrees.
4. Remove the chicken from the skillet, cover and set aside in a warm place. Discard all but 1 tablespoon of the drippings from the pan, and return to the stove over medium heat. Add the shallots, cooking until they caramelize, about 2 minutes. Add the red wine and vinegar and cook until the liquid is reduced by half, a few minutes. Add the chicken broth and tomatoes and stir to combine; adjust seasoning. Whisk in the remaining tablespoon of butter, swirling to thicken the sauce.
5. Return the chicken to the sauce and heat 1 to 2 minutes until warmed through. Sprinkle with chives or parsley and serve immediately.
NOTES : Adapted from chef Bernard Dervieux of Cuistot in Palm Desert. The chef recommends Cabernet vinegar for the red wine vinegar in the recipe.
Per Serving (assuming you consume the chicken skin): 583 Calories; 33g Fat (52.7% calories from fat); 62g Protein; 4g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 201mg Cholesterol; 443mg Sodium. Exchanges: 0 Grain(Starch); 9 Lean Meat; 1/2 Vegetable; 1 Fat; 0 Other Carbohydrates.

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Green Beans with Roasted Shallots and Balsamic Glaze

Sometimes the simplest of ingredients can make the most magnificent of tastes. Such with this easy vegetable. It was only in the last 15 years or so that I have come to appreciate the flavor enhancements, the joy, of cooking with shallots. They have a kind of elusive taste. Not an onion. Not garlic, either. But somewhere in between. And you most likely know they're expensive. Certainly more than onions. And since you usually use more quantity of shallot than of garlic, they can add up if you use very many of them. But I try to keep a few in my pantry all the time now. So I have them when I want them and don't have to make a special trip to the market.

As with onions, once you cook them for awhile they develop this lovely seductive smoothness, and if allowed to caramelize, so the natural sugars in them darken and nearly burn, they have a whole other taste. Unforgettable, really.

And then there's the simple green bean. I go through spells of like and dislike with them. Sometimes I love them dearly, when they're smooth and tender. Other times, after I've prepared some and they've been tough and stringy (even fresh) I've sworn off them for a season. I particularly like Blue Lake green beans. And don't mind paying the price if the market carries them, as they more than likely will be tender. I also absolutely L-O-V-E haricot verts (heh-ree-co-verr), the tiny little green beans originally made popular in France, hence the French name. They're merely young green beans. If you grow beans yourself, just pick them very young and you're most likely guaranteed of a tender mess of them. They're available sometimes at Trader Joe's, although they've been spotty as far as how fresh they are and the tenderness. But if I find them at our local farmer's market, I fall for them every time.

My mother used to make green beans quite often, and the usual method was to boil the heck out of them, until they were nearly mushy and quite gray. Sometimes she added a little onion, and some bacon. They're really not too bad that way, but I prefer my green beans to be a little firm to the tooth, al dente, as they say. And I like them to be truly GREEN, not gray.

In this dish, the shallots and the oil and vinegar are popped into a foil package to roast for an hour. You'll want to serve this dish immediately when they're done, so during that time you'll cook the beans (the photo above is a combination of green beans and sugar snap peas) at the very last minute and combine them, pile them into a serving bowl and the beans will still be nice and green. Do be sure to scrape every last bit of shallots and balsamic glaze out of the foil package. If you're not a real lover of green beans, this might convert you.

Green Beans with Roasted Shallots and Balsamic Glaze
Recipe: From a cooking class at ourhousesouthcounty.com
Servings: 6
12 ounces shallots
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
8 ounces green beans
salt and pepper -- to taste
1. To roast shallots: Peel the shallots and cut in 1/2 inch pieces. Place in the middle of a large piece of aluminum foil. Pour oil and vinegar over the shallots, then sprinkle with salt and pepper, tossing the shallots to coat. Fold and seal the foil, place on a large baking sheet and bake at 375° for about one hour.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add the cleaned and trimmed green beans. Cook until they are just barely done (al dente). Remove from water and plunge into cold or iced water to stop the cooking. Drain for a few minutes.
3. Open the foil and stir to loosen some of the caramelized bits on the foil, then add the green beans and stir and toss to coat the beans thoroughly. Season with additional salt or pepper as needed.
Serving Ideas : This can be served hot, room temp, or cold.
NOTES : These are really very easy. The beans may be cooked ahead, but bake the shallots near to the time to serve.
Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 131 Calories; 9g Fat (59.0% calories from fat); 2g Protein; 12g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 0mg Cholesterol; 9mg Sodium. Exchanges: 2 1/2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 2 Fat.
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