Pork with Red Wine Poached Pears

I made a thing.

It started with some pork chops. I like applesauce with my pork chops, and we didn't have any, so I thought I'd do something else fruity with them. Pork and fruit seems to work pretty well. So I dug around the cookbooks in the kitchen and found a recipe for Prune and Sage Pork Chops.

But I didn't have any prunes. Or any sage. Or, in the end, any white wine, thyme, shallots, chicken stock, or parsley... or effectively _any_ of the ingredients for the recipe. (Time for a shop.) So I faked it, stealing a few ideas from the original, and got:

~3/4 cup red wine (a Merlot)
the juice from a tin of tinned pear halves
salt and pepper
~1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
"some" chipotle pepper sauce, to taste (more than you think - the sweet of the rest drowns out the chili.)

Brought to a simmer in a small pot, removed from heat, added the pear halves, covered and let sit. Seasoned the pork chops and seared on both sides in a pan, then removed to a tray in the oven until just done, then removed to rest. Put a nob of butter in the chop pan with some salt and pepper and about 1/4 cup diced onions. Sauteed for a couple of minutes, then added 1 tablespoon of flour and sauteed for another minute. Stirred in the pears and the pear liquid and simmered for ~4 minutes, until thickened somewhat. Added the juice of 1/2 a lemon (one of the sweeter Meyer ones, from my grandmother's garden) and removed from the heat. Poured the sauce over the chops and served with boiled baby taters and broccoli.

Really rather nice. I would not do this without the chipotle - or at least some form of chili - and lemon juice; it would be too sweet. Could have used a bit more rosemary (or possibly some of the sage I didn't have.)

Figured I'd best write it down; there is no way I'm coming up with the same thing from the same starting point a second time...

Hock it up, baby

I bought a hock, for soups. I'm doing some research. Here's some stuff I found.

Ulitimately, I want a soup I can freeze for lunches, and fill with veg, and hopefully barley.
But this crazy hungarian one looks good.

**************************

Dried Bean Soup with Smoked Pork Hock - Bableve Recipe

Ingredients for 6 servings

- 145 g (5 oz.) White Bean or White Kidney Bean

- 1 smoked Pork hock, about 750 g (1 lb. 8 oz.)

- 200 g (7 oz.) turnip

- 100 g (3 1/2 oz.) carrot

- 1 tbsp. oil

- 2 tbsp. flour

- 1 clove of garlic

- 1/2 tsp. paprika

- Salt

- Sour cream

Method

1. Soak the beans overnight.
2. Place the pork hock in a soup pot; cover with water and boil for 15 minutes. If the broth is too salty, add more water.
3. Continue cooking until the pork is almost tender; add the beans.
4. When the beans are almost cooked, add the other vegetables, cut into pieces.
5. Once the hock is cooked, remove it; bone it, chop the meat and return it to the pot.
6. Make a roux: brown the flour in the oil until nicely colored; add the garlic and heat for a few seconds. Remove from the heat; sprinkle with paprika; add 250 ml (1 cup) cold water; mix well and add to the pot.
7. Bring to a boil; continue cooking over medium heat for 10 minutes.

Jó étvágyat ! (Bon appétit !)

***********************************************

This one looks so very convoluted, I'm not even going to put the recipe here. Just the URL.

Some good ideas from a forum of peeps here.

And this one looks delicious, but I can see that when you do it properly, like take the 2 days, it would taste fabulous. I just don't have the time.

I think I'm going to boil the hock, add the barely, and then add some veg. That sounds exciting enough for me today. Should I put the onions and garlic, herbs in when the barley goes in?

What would you do with your very own smoked pork hock?

Sticky pork

This, is, the goods. Man oh man. So very sticky.
I like to serve it with angel hair noodles, and a cabbage salad lightly drizzled in sesame oil. Hot, cold and noodley, all mixed up on the same plate.

And good with that aussie wine, too.

K, I hungry now.