December 7, 2011 Dinner Sautèed Pork Chop with toasted cabbage

December 7, 2011 Dinner Sautèed Pork Chop with toasted cabbage

Sometimes things happen when you are cooking that you think are mistakes but they turn out to be positive experiences from a taste standpoint.  One of those things happened tonight.  I picked up two beautiful boneless thick cut pork chops (Lowe’s $4.68/lb.) to cook with the green cabbage I had purchased at Pro’s Ranch Market last week ($.25/lb), because I know that one of the dinners that Suzette loves is pork anything with sautèed cabbage and apples and onions.  Since I had to go to meditate by 6:45 p.m., I started chopping cabbage into strips at 5:30 p.m.

Suzette came home at around 5:45 p.m. and when I showed her the lovely fresh pork chops, she agreed immediately to cook them and the skillet full of cabbage strips I had placed on the stove ready to cook.  We decided to fix dinner before my departure for mediation at 6:45 p.m., so I asked her what kind of apple she wanted, Jonathan or Granny Smith.  Suzette said Granny Smith, so I went to the garage fridge, but found only a Fuji.  While I watched the news and diced the Fuji and some onion and a couple of small cloves of garlic, Suzette seasoned the chops with salt and pepper and started cooking the chops in a separate cast iron skillet and then started cooking the cabbage (see next paragraph for cabbage recipe) and then went to her computer to check her e mails. 

We learned our favorite recipe for sautèeing cabbage on a trip to Budapest about ten years ago.  A friendly restaurant owner of a small ethnic restaurant shared his recipe for sautéed cabbage.  He simply used good olive oil and seasoned the cabbage with ground cumin and a little garlic.  We have adapted his recipe, based on our love for pork by adding onion and apples and a bit of vinegar and sometimes a dash of sugar depending upon the freshness of the cabbage.    

About five to ten minutes later when I returned to the kitchen with the chopped apple, onion and garlic, I discovered that the cabbage had been left on high heat and some of the strips on the bottom of the pile next to the skillet had darkened considerably (toasted or charred).  I turned down the heat immediately and added the diced apples, onions and garlic and called Suzette.  I took out a few of the more blackened cabbage strips and tasted them and they tasted crisp and toasted.  Suzette added some butter to keep the mixture from burning any further and we continued to sautée the cabbage uncovered.  I went to change for mediation and Suzette added some apple cider vinegar to the mix and flipped the chops.  When I returned she asked if I wanted sugar snap peas and I said yes, so we stringed about ¾ cup of peas and steamed them for about five minutes, while I went to the basement fridge and fetched a bottle of a recently purchased Albero Rose Bobal 2010 (Trader Joe’s $5.99).  I opened it and it tasted decidedly dry, like a dry Rosado (not much fruit).  Rather than get another bottle, we decided to try it with the dish to see if it was food friendly.

I poured full glasses of the wine to let it breath and we then each plated up a chop, some of the sautéed cabbage and each took half of the steamed peas. (See picture).

We were eating by 6:20 p.m. and by 6:45 p.m. I was on my way to meditation.  

The wine was better with the food and after it opened up a bit, but it was still breathtakingly dry; drier than a Laxas albarino.  The Albero Rose would be great with a piece of grilled fish with lemon. 

Here is the story on Bobal: 

Bobal From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Bunch of Bobal grapes

Bobal is a variety of Vitis Vinifera, a red grape used in winemaking. It is native to the Utiel-Requena region in Valencia, Spain. The name derives from the Latin bovale, in reference to the shape of a bull’s head. It is grown predominantly in the Utiel-Requena DO where it represents about 90% of all vines grown, and is also present in significant quantities in Valencia, Cuenca and Albacete. It can only be found in small quantities in other regions of Spain: La Manchuela (Castile La Mancha), selected vineyards in Ribera de Guadiana DO, Alicante DO, Murcia, Campo de Borja, Calatayud, Cariñena, Valdejalón. Small quantities are also grown in Rosellón (south of France) and in Sardinia (Italy). A rare white variety of the same name also exists. According to the data from the Spanish Vine Registry (Registro Vitícola Español) of 31 July 2004, Bobal is the third most planted variety in Spain with 90,000 ha (8%), coming behind Airén 305,000 ha (27%) and Tempranillo 190,000 (17%).