when i cook, i usually don't follow a cookbook or recipe, unless it's a brand new technique i'm learning (like baking sweets or preparing fish - which i'm still not good at). this gives me freedom, creative freedom, to do whatever i want in the kitchen, relying on my learnt skills to guide me through the evening. i find chopping herbs and veggies oddly satisfying, methodical, and peaceful. i like how cooking allows me to use my senses in a completely different way then at work, combining smell, taste, sight and touch in every chop of the knife, flip of the pan, sizzle of the sauce. cooking in the kitchen is fun and exciting to me. perhaps it's because i feel confident and in charge in this domain, and even if i screw up, i can usually find a way to fix it. or i just dump it in the trash and start over.
this evening, i scoured my fridge and found a package of frozen pork chops, a bunch of basil starting to brown, half a head of raddichio from thanksgiving (a little soft but still good), and a package of butter lettuce mix. wanting to use up good ingredients before they went bad, i recalled an interesting "sauce" i tasted at perbacco months ago with chef paul. paul had ordered a roasted duck breast dish which had braised raddichio along with cippolline onions and roasted grapes served on the side. the braised raddichio had been wonderfully bitter and savory at the same time. i thought, that should taste great with pan-fried, smoky pork chops.
i knew how to braise cabbage, but in order to get that sweet, savory taste i knew i needed wine to deglaze the pan after frying the pork chops. alas, no cheap wine in the house, until i spotted the bottle of tawny port leftover from the turkey giblet port gravy i made 4 weeks ago. never really cooked with port before besides the gravy, but i figured it's the same basic technique. adventure! and so here we go...
i peeled away the outer, soft leaves of the raddichio head and thickly shredded the rest. several leaves of basil were washed and roughly chopped, and 2 cloves of garlic where sliced.
the pork chops, seasoned well with with salt and coarse grind black pepper (fine grind is for wussies), were pan-fried with olive oil and some of the garlic for about 4 min each side to medium. careful not to overcook or it'll get tough. some pink is a-ok.
the pork chops came out to rest on a plate, the rest of the garlic went in, and oh, about 1/2 a cup of port was poured into the pan, off the flame. after a billow of white, greasy smoke, i scraped the tasty browned bits off the bottom of the pan with my wooden spoon and allowed it to reduce almost all the way to burn off the alcohol and concentrate the sweet port notes.
the chopped raddichio went in with a stir, then the basil. a few pours of chicken broth followed, about 1/2 cup.
i let the raddichio braise in the liquid for a few minutes to mellow the bitter notes and blend the flavors. once it was nicely soft and brown, i tasted for salt and more pepper. it needed a slight sweet, acidic kick, so i added a splash of balsamic vinegar at the very end. perfect.
this braise then went over the pork chops acting as a rich, complex "sauce" for the chops.
a quick salad was made with a handful of the butter lettuce mix, drizzles of balsamic and olive oil, salt, pepper, and a couple small wedges of stilton to garnish.
can you say "awesome!?" it's my new word, thanks to becca. the sweet and slightly bitter raddichio paired wonderfully with the smoky chops, which were well-seasoned and still moist.
i made sure each bite i took had some of the raddichio braise on top of it. the only way to savor all the flavors in this rich yet surprisingly easy dish.
i impressed myself with this one. flavors were spot on and i was able to adapt a technique for a different ingredient. see? cooking is fun and very rewarding.
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