As part of the "Iron Chef" gig for this weekend, my wife got some gorgeous thick cut, bone-in pork chops from our local butcher, Greg's Meats in Springboro, Ohio (yes, we have a local butcher, and the meat there is fantastic...its nice to have his shop as an option as opposed to just what they have in the local grocery stores). She had also gotten some potatoes and asparagus, and now it was up to me to come up with something.
Initially, I was just thinking about grilling the chops and roasting the potatoes, but that sounded sort of boring. As I was leafing through a "Food and Wine" magazine, I came across a recipe for an orange and herb marinated pork loin. Hmmm...that sounded pretty good. I had done a pork roast using orange juice as a marinade before, and it had turned out pretty good. So, I decided to go with that with the chops, and I decided to do something different with the potatoes as well. For some reason, the notion of combining apples with the potatoes kept coming back to me...I knew I had read about it somewhere, and the notion sounded intriquing. I mentioned it to Susan, but she sort of wrinkled her nose at the idea. That set me back a bit, but I was not to be put off. I googled "apples and potatoes" and came across several hits that combined those two unlikely pan-mates.
So, I grabbed a bowl and whisked together 1/4 cup olive oil, 1-2 cups of orange juice, 4 medium cloves of garlic (smashed through a garlic press), some dried parsely, 1 teaspon cumin, and salt and pepper. I put the 3 pork chops into a large zip-lock bag and poured the marinade in, and then set the bag on the counter. Now, it was off to the store to get the rest of what I needed.
I went to my local grocery store and got some apples, fresh rosemary, a nice Austrian Gruner Veltliner white wine, and some more beer (I was down to only 2 bottles...the horror!). When it was time to start cooking, I peeled,cored, and cubed 3 Granny Smith apples, and combined them with 1 1/2 lbs small red potatoes, which I had cubed rather small (about 1/4 inch dice). In a large sauce pan, I melted 3/4 stick of butter of medium heat, and when that was bubbling, I added the apples and potatoes. I tossed the mixture in the butter to make sure they were all coated, and then added 4 sprigs of fresh rosemary. I put the top on the sauce pan since I figured it would take a while to cook, and preheated my grill for the pork chops.
When it was time to put the pork chops on the grill, I pulled them out of the baggie, and poured the marinade into a small sauce pan, and turned the heat up to medium high, and then added 2 tablespoons of butter. I figured that the marinade would make a nice pan sauce after I had boiled and reduced it a tad.
With that I got the pork chops going on the grill, and then prepped my asparagus. I decided to do that simply....tossed with a bit of olive oil and salt and ground pepper. Once I flipped the pork chops, after about 5 minutes, I threw the asparagus on. I pulled the chops off the grill after they had been on about 12 minutes or so, and let them rest for about 10 minutes.
Everything turned out rather well. The apples cooked far faster than I had anticipated, even though I had cubed them at least twice as large as the potatoes. In the end, the apples pretty much disintegrated, coating the potatoes in an apple mush. As unappetizing as that sounds, it actually tasted pretty good, with the apples lending a distinctly tart, slightly sweet (I purposely used the Granny Smiths to avoid adding too much sweetness to what should be, in my mind, a savory dish) flavor to the buttery potatoes. The marinade reduced to a nice, rich, orangy sauce that I poured over the pork chops, which came of the grill at just the right moment. The only part that didn't turn out quite as I had planned was the asparagus, which was a bit cold. Next time I'll put the asparagus on while the pork is resting, as it doesn't take long to cook or cool down.
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