Pork Chop

When the peaches are perfect, ripe and succulent, make this dish. The real fun comes when you set the sauce ablaze. Just watch your eyebrows!

This is one of the best ways we know to use up day-old corn bread. We mix it with spicy Italian sausage and stuff it into some bodacious pork chops to turn out one good-lookin’ dish for our Custom-Que menu.

Sometimes it’s nice to make a meal that takes only a couple of steps to get into the oven, and then you can forget about it for an hour while it cooks. The beef broth gives the rice a great flavor. I serve this with Cooked-to-Death Green Beans (page 130).

This dish takes a bit of attention, but the results are well worth the effort for a special meal. The steam that rises from the water in the bottom of the pan keeps the pork chops tender and moist. Mom used canning jar rings instead of a rack to elevate the chops above the water.

Cherries are just as delightful in savory contexts as they are in sweet ones; here, they’re combined with sage and a little vinegar to complement the mild flavor of pork chops. This is a perfect dish for a romantic dinner for two. This is a classic example of a simple pan sauce and can be modified for different meats or seasons. Try swapping in different fruits, herbs, or vinegars, depending on your whims and desires. If cherries aren’t in season, figs or apricots would be especially good.

The quince trees at our River Ranch property are just delivering their first harvest at the time of the Workshop. Many chefs are captivated with these uncommon autumn fruits, which are rockhard and astringent when raw and must be cooked to release their floral perfume. Chef David Everett made a memorable quince chutney for duck breasts when he attended the Workshop in 1994. Brian likes to serve the same chutney with brined pork chops. Cooking the pork on the bone enhances flavor and seals in the succulence imparted by the brine. Accompany the pork with braised escarole or Tuscan kale, or with Brussels sprouts and chestnuts. Any leftover chutney will keep for at least a week in the refrigerator and would be delicious with blue cheese. Note that the chops need to rest in the brine overnight.

When cooking stuffed chops and roasts, it is important to check the internal temperature of the stuffing to determine doneness. To accompany the pork, use a good-quality store-bought chutney, and serve a simple green salad on the side.

COOKING WITH MARMALADE is a great way to add a strong concentration of orange to a dish, and the high sugar content of the marmalade results in beautifully caramelized meat. We prefer to grill these pork chops, but you can pan-fry them as well.

WHY IT’S LIGHT A very thin pork cutlet is a healthful main course meat, even after sautéing in olive oil; the secret is to only dredge in flour and skip the more traditional bread-crumb coatings. Fill out the plate with vegetables such as leafy greens and sautéed cherry tomatoes.

GOOD TO KNOW Kebabs are a good way to incorporate vegetables into from-the-grill dinners. They also allow you to use a small amount of a high-fat food, such as the chorizo in the pork kebabs, to maximum effect. If using wooden skewers, soak them in water for thirty minutes before grilling.

GOOD TO KNOW When planning meals with calorie and fat counts in mind, balance higher-fat proteins with low-fat sides, so the totals still fall within the target range. Here, simply seasoned pork chops—grilled on the bone for flavor and tenderness—are served with a spicy-sweet relish made from peaches, red onion, honey, and lemon juice. The relish is far better tasting and healthier than store-bought barbecue sauces.

Tender cuts of meat—chicken breasts, steaks, and chops, for example—are prime candidates for pan-frying, and when properly cooked have a mouthwateringly crisp, browned exterior and a tender, juicy interior. Pan-frying makes dinner a breeze; there is practically no preparation involved and the meat is cooked quickly and sent straight to the table. The fundamentals for achieving good results are a heavy pan, high heat, and a fairly thin piece of meat. Why does a heavy pan matter? Have you ever cooked something in a thin pan and had it burn, with the burn exactly the same shape as the electrical element below? This shows how a thin pan transmits heat directly from the burner to what is cooking instead of diffusing the heat across the pan’s surface. A heavy pan can distribute heat—and a lot of it—from the burner to the bottom of the pan. This is key in pan-frying and sautéing, because the pan needs to be quite hot to sear and caramelize or brown, but not burn, the surface of what is being cooked. If I could have only one pan, it would be a cast-iron skillet. The heavy iron heats evenly, making it a wonderful vehicle for browning and frying. An added bonus is that a seasoned cast-iron pan is virtually nonstick. The next-best thing after a cast-iron skillet is a stainless-steel-lined heavy aluminum or aluminum-core frying pan. The aluminum is an excellent heat conductor, while the stainless steel offers a good nonreactive surface to cook on. Besides being heavy, the pan should have low sides so the meat won’t steam as it cooks. Because pan-frying requires high heat, the meat you choose should be fairly thin. Chops should be 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick and steaks 1 inch thick or less. Over high heat, thicker cuts will get crusty and dry on the outside before the inside is done. (A good method for cooking thicker chops and steaks is to brown them, by cooking them briefly on both sides at high heat, and pop them, skillet and all, into a 375°F oven to finish cooking. Alternatively, after browning, finish cooking over lowered heat, with the pan covered.) For even cooking, the thickness should be uniform. Chicken breasts can be lightly pounded at the thicker end to even them out so they will cook consistently. It is wise to have all your ingredients ready to go before you start cooking: the oil should be handy, the meat should be seasoned, and, if you are going to make a pan sauce, those ingredients should be on hand as well. Heat the pan first: a hot pan in combination with oil will sear the meat and keep it from sticking. Otherwise, the meat will sweat and its leaking juices will cause the meat to adhere to the bottom of the pan. Once the pan is hot, add a little bit of oil, or oil and butter (butter alone burns too quickly at high temperatures). Add the oil after the pan has heated so that it does not start to smoke and burn before you are ready to start cooking. For pan-frying only a little oil is needed, just enough to generously coat the bottom of the pan. After a few seconds, when the oil is shimmering, put the meat in the pan. The meat should fit in the pan in a single layer with a little space between each piece. If the pieces are crowded or overlapping, the liquid they release will keep the meat from browning; if there are large areas of the pan left exposed, the oil in these areas will burn and smoke. If necessary, fry in batches or in two pans simultaneously. Cook the meat on one side until it is nicely browned. Peek underneath after 2 or 3 minutes to monitor the browning; lower the heat if it is browning too quickly, or, if nothing is happening, turn it up. To brown the other side, turn the meat with tongs or a long, sharp-tined fork. In general, most cuts of meat need to cook for 4 to 5 minutes on each side. Chicken breasts can cook for a longer time on the skin side, 8 minutes or so, leaving the tender meaty side to cook only a few minutes. I am an advocate for leaving the skin on...

In its homeland of Alsace, choucroute garnie is no more special than a frank and sauerkraut, with which it has much in common. But while the French treat this archetypally hearty combination of sauerkraut, spices, wine, and smoked meats as common fare, here it has become the province of restaurants. In any case, choucroute is a flexible combination of wintertime staples, the perfect cold-weather dish, featuring sauerkraut cooked in a little goose fat (or duck fat or lard) and wine, then “garnished”—this is some garnish—with a variety of candidly heavy meats, some smoked, some fresh or salted. Note that good sauerkraut does not come in cans but is sold fresh from barrels or in plastic. It should contain no more than cabbage and salt—beyond that, the less the better.

It isn’t often you can combine a few winter staples and create a novel, fresh-tasting dish that is easily varied, stands on its own, or forms the base for a variety of other foods. Yet a simple mélange of fennel and orange does all of these things and without a lot of effort. Take some slices of boneless pork, for example, marinate them briefly in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, salt, and pepper, pan-roast them, then serve them on a bed of the compote: the mingled juices are sheer delight. (I’ve presented the recipe that way here, but it is easy to cook the fennel-orange combination on its own.) Similarly, the compote works nicely as a bed for simple roasted cod, sautéed duck breast, and grilled chicken. There isn’t much technique to speak of here; you’ll know the dish is done when the orange juice bubbles become scarce. Just be sure not to cook the compote entirely dry; the orange juice sauce is a nice touch.

Miso is a superb thickener, adding a rich, creamy consistency when whisked into a small amount of liquid. With that in mind, it’s the work of a moment to turn the pan juices remaining after searing a piece of meat into a great sauce. My choice here is pork for meat and red wine for liquid; the combination resulting from these three ingredients completely belies the amount of energy put into the dish. Red miso (which is in fact brown) adds terrific color to the sauce and has the strongest flavor of all the misos; it’s also the easiest to find. Miso must be handled gently, because high heat practically destroys its flavor; so be sure to keep the heat low when you stir it in. For the pork, I prefer a bone-in chop, preferably from the rib end of the loin; it’s a little bit fattier than other chops, and these days pork is so lean that the extra fat is a benefit rather than a detriment.

This dish has the beguiling, distinctively Southeast Asian aroma of garlic, lots of it, nuoc mam (the Vietnamese fish sauce known more commonly by its Thai name, nam pla), and lime. But there are a couple of “secret” ingredients as well, including the mild acidity of lemongrass and the spiciness of black pepper in large quantities. Traditionally, this dish also contains the burnt sweetness that comes from caramelized sugar, but the intense heat of the grill makes honey a good substitute and a much easier one. So the marinade can be assembled in ten minutes, the grill preheated in another ten, and the pork grilled in ten: a great, intensely flavored, thirty-minute dish. You can use pork chops for this dish, but so-called country-style ribs (actually the shoulder end of the pork loin) remain moister during grilling. And if you can find these “ribs” with the bone out, so much the better—you’ve essentially got a one-inch-thick pork loin steak that grills beautifully.

A laughably simple weeknight dish that packs a lot of flavor. Try to buy shoulder (rib) end pork chops, which will dry out less in the pan than others. Serve with a salad and a cooked vegetable or starch, like any of the mashed potato dishes on page 480. Other cuts of meat you can use here: bone-in chicken thighs (which will require more cooking) or pork medallions cut from the tenderloin (which will cook more quickly).

A Norman recipe, easily identified with the region because of the combination of dairy and meat. It may sound overly rich, but pork is so lean these days that the added fat is welcome, and the taste is incredible. A wonderful dish for midwinter; serve it with simple boiled potatoes or rice and a steamed vegetable. Other cuts of meat you can use here: veal chops or bone-in chicken breasts.

In Spain, where the world’s best oranges grow, they are used to season just about everything. One of my favorite encounters with the citrus fruit was an oven-braised dish of pork and oranges that I had in Seville. It could not have been simpler and can be reproduced easily. Use either country-style ribs, ribs cut from the rib (shoulder) end, or even spareribs if you like; avoid center-cut or loin pork chops here because they will become dry and tasteless.

This is one of those one pot meals that bring spice and a lot of flavor to the table. It is a traditional method of cooking and combining ingredients, especially in southern Italy, and many restaurants have it on their menus, especially those in the Little Italys across America. This method of adding the cherry peppers, potatoes, and vinegar can be used with chicken or rabbit, too. The spice gives the dish its “capricious” name.