Pork Chops in White Wine Sauce

Happy new year! Welcome to 2010, the future. I know we were all positive that a robot would be president by now and we’d be able to come home to a nice hot meal in pill form after a long day at the Sproket factory, but we’re probably just going to have to wait a little longer. In the meantime, I got my Julie Powell on by conquering my first meal out of my new copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It was pretty exciting.

After my roommate’s dad visited, we were left with a whole bounty of meat bought by him one morning. I figured yesterday—after spending all day doing the crossword, looking for jobs, drinking tea and watching Arrested Development on Hulu—it might be time to actually be productive and cook something. I looked in the freezer and whaddaya know: pork chops! I decided to go with the easiest variation on Mrs. Child’s recipes, pork chops cooked in a simple white wine, butter and garlic sauce. Yum. On the side mashed potatoes worked great, and the apartment smelled amazing. The only thing I wish I had done was get bigger pork chops. Of course, these were what was left for me, but the recipe called for chops 1 to 1 1/4 inches thick, and mine were probably not even 1/2 an inch. This lead to them being a bit tough, even though I cut the cooking time. So I highly suggest you tell your butcher to cut you some thick chops.

Oh also, this will be the inaugural post of the PRIMITIVE COMFORT VIDEO SERIES!! Not really a series, I guess, but more of some videos taken with my snazzy new iPod Nano illustrating some tricky parts of the process. This week I bring you videos on what it looks like to baste the chops in the pan, and what “fork tender” means when making mashed potatoes. But we have video! Because it’s the future!

Pork Chops in Casserole with White Wine Sauce (Serves 4)

• 4 bone-in pork chops, 1 inch thick (oops)
• 3-4 Tbsp bacon fat or cooking oil (we went with bacon fat, so worth it)
• 2 garlic cloves, halved
• 2 Tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup dry white wine (Pinot Grigio works well)

Heat fat or oil over a medium high skillet. Dry chops with a paper cloth and brown in pan for about 3 minutes on each side. Remove and set on a plate. Pour out all but about 2 Tbsp of the bacon fat, then add butter and garlic to the pan and wait until they’ve melted. Add back pork chops, baste with butter, cover and lower heat, and let cook for about 20 minutes.*

When the juices run clear, remove the chops. Add wine and keep at a rapid boil until it has reduced to about 1/2 a cup of liquid. Serve over chops and enjoy.

Then we got the mashed potatoes on the side. I’m not going to include a recipe for mashed potatoes. Basically, chop up a bunch of potatoes, peeled or unpeeled to your liking (one large potato per person is a good ratio.) Cut into about 1 inch cubes, and boil until fork tender. What is “fork tender”? I’m glad you asked:

Strain the potatoes and mash with a few Tbsp of butter and milk, plus any seasonings you might want. I’m a fan of pepper, garlic salt and rosemary, but cayenne is really nice in there too. Be creative!

*Here’s where it’s kinda tricky. In the book she says to put the skillet into a 350 degree oven and cook for 25 minutes, but for “3 to 4 chops or 1 to 2 steaks, cooking on the stovetop is fine.” I’m not entirely sure how she means to cook on the stovetop, but I think this is about what she means. I didn’t have an oven safe skillet at the time, but go ahead and do that if you can.

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Tags: dinner, garlic, pork, pork chops, White Wine