Gingersnap Porkchops: BUTTER AND PORK.

Gingersnap Porkchops



Porkchops are awesome. Gingersnaps are dandy. Butter is fabulous. The combination of the three can only be successful. Thus, this recipe for Gingersnap Porkchops has already become one of my favorites. Here's how we do. Recipe nicked from Grace Parisi in Food and Wine magazine.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup finely ground gingersnaps (any old kind)
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
Pork. You can use medallions of tenderloin or bone-in porkchops here. I went with bone-in cause they is good.
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 minced shallot
1/4 cup Calvados or other apple brandy. Or just brandy.
1 cup low sodium chicken broth or stock.
1/4 cup apple cider.
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
Chopped chives.

Crush the gingersnaps in a mortar and pestle, or use a blender. If you have hungry friends hanging around, make them do this for you. Lousy bums! Mix the gingersnaps and the flour on a plate, then dredge the chops in it.

Find a large skillet, then add olive oil. Melt a tablespoon of butter in the oil, then add the chops, cooking over moderately high heat until just about done. Stick them on a plate.



Add the shallot to the skillet, then cook until softened. Add the brandy (if your friends have not sucked it down) and cook down until reduced by half, about a minute or so. Add the stock and cider, then simmer until the sauce is reduced to one cup, scraping up delicious browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Toss in the vinegar, the left over ground gingersnaps, and a tablespoon of butter, and cook until thickened. Add the pork back to the skillet and cook for about one minute more.

Transfer to plates and spoon on sauce. Garnish with chives and more gingersnaps if feeling fancy. I wasn't.

I served this with sauteed sauerkraut and rainbow chard sauteed with some orange juice and (more) bacon. That's an easy one. Drain some high quality sauerkraut - fresh if you can get it - for an hour or so. When ready to cook, toss some bacon into the pan and cook until brown. Then add a finely chopped and peeled apple. When the apple is soft, toss in the sauerkraut and sauteed until brown and warm and suffused with pork fat. Just before serving, stir in a couple hefty spoonfuls of whole grain mustard. May indeed convert avowed kraut haters. Bacon. It's the Gateway Drug.