New Years Pork

I decided that my first post would be the New Year's Day dinner I made for my mom. Besides the typical traditions observed such as kissing at midnight or possibly just getting sloppy drunk, there are a few less known traditions or superstitions are also observed.

Commonly in my house we eat pork. The reason (which I had no idea until yesterday) is because poultry scratches backwards, cattle stand still, but pigs keep rooting forward. The bad part about this tradition is I never liked pork. This is probably because my mom would murder the poor pig again and serve us a piece of dry, tough pork chop. I would usually run to a friends house in high school when we were going to have pork chops for dinner.

So I told my mom I would venture into the realm of cooking pork. I decided to go with a recipe I saw from Iron Chef Micheal Symon. I cooked pork chops on the bone with an apple, peach mostarda and puree. Mostarda is common in Italy and is fruit with the essence of mustard, being either mustard seed or mustard oil. You can make it and jar it up and it is served up with boiled meats.

In this dish there is really three levels of flavor. The mostarda gives a nice tart flavor to accent the pork while the puree adds a bit of sweetness. Also, I specifically looked for the pork on the bone with the fat still on it. The fat just adds to the flavor and can be trimmed off before serving.

The pork chops on the bone are thick. I would typically go to a butcher my dad found in Ventnor, but I found some in Shop Rite. You can probably make this with the chops off the bone and thin cut, but there will be less flavor and easier to overcook. Also, to get a moist chop, it should be slightly pink and somewhere around 150-160 degrees on a thermometer.

Ingredients:

4 Pork Chops

Kosher or Sea Salt

Pinch of Sugar

Blended oil

Apple and Peach Puree

1 Peach peeled, pitted and sliced

1 McIntosh Apple, peeled, cored and sliced

1 cup of unsalted butter (I used 1 cup and then looked in the pan and decided 1 cup was entirely too much and poured a lot of it out, so you may want to use less)

Sea Salt

Apple and Peach Mostarda

1 tablespoon coriander seed

1 tablespoon mustard seed

1/2 cup dried cherries

1 peach peeled, pitted and diced into medium size chunks

1 Granny Smith Apple peeled, cored and diced into medium size chunks

4-5 sprigs of fresh thyme

1 shallot finely sliced

2 cups of apple cider vinegar

Sea salt and Black peppercorn

Splash of mustard oil

For Plating

Peppercress

Extra virgin olive oil for drizzling

Instructions

For the pork:

Season the chops with the salt and a pinch of sugar on both sides. If possible season the night before and leave in the fridge. Typically for steaks I don't put salt on meat like steak until AFTER cooking because it tends to pull the moisture out of the meat, but it worked for me. Allow the pork to cool to room temp before cooking.

For the puree:

In a large saute pan over medium-high heat add the butter, apple and peach and allow to get tender about 10 minutes. Carefully put into a blender and blend till pureed. And salt to taste.

For the Mostarda:

In a small saucepan over medium heat add the coriander and mustard seeds. Allow to toast for about 30 seconds. Then add the apple, peach, vinegar, thyme and shallots and cherries into the saucepan. Allow to simmer till the apples and peaches are tender, again about 10 minutes, I let mine on for a little longer. Add salt and fresh pepper to taste. Take off the heat and add a splash of mustard oil.

Plating (which I am not great at):

Toss the peppercress with some Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Place a spoonful of the puree onto the plate. Cut the pork off the bone and slice up. Place some of the mostarda on the pork followed by the peppercress. Drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil and serve! Mine plating is what it looks like on the top. Here is how an Iron chef serves it.