Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Pork Chops in Mustard Sauce

I made pork chops on a whim recently, because I'd only made them once before and done such a bad job of it that I wanted to make a point of doing them well. I browsed through some recipes in a coupe of my cookbooks, and got a sense of the sorts of things that go into marinades and sauces and the methods of cooking pork, and threw this together with what was in my pantry. It got rave reviews as it was eaten, so I thought you might like to try it. It's really easy, and really tasty. As you can see I served it with stuffing and string beans sauteed in garlic.

Pork
Chops in Mustard Sauce

Serves 4
Prep a few hours ahead, Cooking time 15 minutes

4 pork chops
1 tsp Dijon mustard with lots of seeds
½ cup apple cider vinegar, or more to taste
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tsp sage
2 tsp honey
½ tsp thyme
½ tsp coriander
dash of salt
dash of ground black pepper
4 to 6 cloves of garlic, smashed and chopped
¼ cup sherry
1 tb butter
¼ cup water

Mix all but the butter, sherry and water in a wide flat dish and marinate the pork chops in this, covered, for an hour or more, or as long as overnight.

In a large skillet on medium-high heat, place the pork chops as close to the center as possible without touching each other and press them down to the pan to ensure maximum contact. Do not pour the marinade in the pan yet.
After cooking for 5 minutes or so on one side, flip the chops and press them again, adding the sherry, butter, and half of the marinade. Cook for 5 minutes covered then check for doneness by cutting into the middle of one of the chops. Once the chops are cooked through, remove them to plates and add the rest of the marinade and a little water to the skillet, scraping and stirring to incorporate the browned marinade from the chops' initial searing.
Pour over chops and serve immediately.

2 comments:

  1. Pork chops are one of my favorite meats.
    Something I tried recently was fairly similar to your recipe here, but with a whole pork loin and coated it with Lusty Monk Hotter Than Hell Chipotle Mustard. It's not really hotter than Hell, and of course the cooking tones it down a bit, but it made for a nice variation.

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  2. That sounds good! I'll try mixing mustard and chipotle next time I make chops. Thanks for the suggestion :)

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