This Aint Peter's Pork Chops and Applesauce
August 18, 2008
ZOH. MY. GAWD. I just made the absolute most delicious pork chops that I have ever eaten in my life. They were so good, that there is absolutely no picture remaining to prove their delicious. They had a perfect balance of sweet and spicy, with lots of deep warm flavors that mixed perfectly with the pork's overall flavor. Wanna know how I made 'em?
Ingredients
- 2 Pork Chops
- Chili Powder
- Chili Flakes
- Garlic Powder
- Paprika
- Whole Peppercorn
- Coarse salt
- Worchestershire Sauce
- Soy Sauce
- Brown Sugar
- White Sugar
- 1 Apple
- Lemon Juice
- Balsamic Vinegar
Method - Sauce
You should start the sauce about 15 minutes to a half hour before the chops. It takes awhile to reduce, and you really do want several reductions to occur. Quarter the apple and plop it in a pot. You can skin it, or you can pick the skins out as it reduces. Your choice. Add in about a teaspoon of chili powder, chili flakes and paprika.
Pop a bunch of peppercorns and salt into a coffee grinder and pulse them until you get a coarse'ish texture, certainly not as fine as a store-bought pepper. Put about a teaspoon of this in there, but you'll need more for the chops.
Now, put about a handful of brown sugar in there and half a handful of white sugar. This will interact with the apples' flavor and make the whole sauce a lot sweeter. Delicious.
You've got your dry ingredients in there, now you should put in your wetness. Mix in about quarter cup of soy sauce and about five or six dashes of worshestershire sauce in there and then put a squirt of the balsamic vinegar. Done yet? Not quite. Put about a quarter cup of lemon juice in there to help break down the apples while you're cooking.
Now, put in enough water to cover the apples and start it'a'simmerin. Bring it to a slow boil and leave it alone for awhile keeping your eye on it. Throughout the whole process it will reduce to a sticky consistency and you'll fill it back up with water about five times. Hooray reduction!
You'll know its done when the apples are indistinguishable from the sauce.
You could omit the apples and sugar, add in some Sri-racha sauce and some fish sauce and you would have a good start towards a Vietnamese sauce.
Method - Pork Chops
Oh, these are delicious on their own - but the applesauce mentioned above makes the dish absolutely fan-fucking-tastic.
First, the dry rub for the chops. You're going to rub them down with about a teaspoon each of chili powder, chili flakes, garlic powder (I like garlic, so I used more), your salt and peppercorn mixture from before (confession, I used about a tablespoon) and paprika. You're going to augment this mixture with about a 1/2 cup (a handful) of brown sugar and a 1/4 cup of white sugar.
Let these sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes to let everything set in before continuing the delicious.
Once they've sat awhile, and your apple sauce is underway, put your chops into a high-edged cookie sheet and fill it with water covering about half of the height of the chops - you'll be sort of braising them in the oven. To this add in a couple dashes of worcestershire sauce for some nice deep flavor, and about 1/4 cup of soy sauce to flavor everything.
Pop this in the oven @ about 250~300F for about 1.5hrs flipping the chops every half hour. After about 1.5hrs, drain the juice (you could save this for something, I'm sure) and put a pad of butter atop each chop and pop 'em back in for about 15 minutes. Flip 'em, and then put 'em in for another 15 minutes.
Delicious!!!
Om. Nom. This dish is a deliciously warm and deep play on traditional pork chops and applesauce. Once you;ve had home-made applesauce like this, you will never even consider Mott's to be applesauce. Enjoy!
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1 Comments
| Tagged: Cooking, Recipes
Becky 2008/08/20
You are full of skills and cooking win.