November 4, 2014 New Recipe Cherry Port Sauce with Grilled Boneless Sirloin Pork Chops, sauteed Spaghetti Squash and steamed Asparagus

I called Suzette at 4:00 after a CLE seminar and she suggested that we grill pork chops and saute some of the PPI spaghetti squash that we had baked on Sunday.  I said I would like to make a cherry port sauce, so when I stopped at Costco to buy eggs, I also bought a bag of dried cherries with a bottle of rum, Delice and Swiss Gruyere cheese and a case of beer.

When I arrived home, Suzette said she had only had a small salad for lunch and she was hungry, so we decided to cook at around 5:00.  I ran to the basement and fetched a bottle of Le Ferme Vielle rosé and put it into the freezer.

Then I checked the internet and found the following recipe on Epicurious.

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 4 4-to 5-ounce loin lamb chops
• 1/3 cup chopped shallots
• 3/4 cup ruby Port
• 1/2 cup low-salt chicken broth
• 1/2 cup dried tart cherries
• 3 tablespoons cherry jam
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• Chopped fresh mint or parsley

Suzette was thawing out two pork chops under running warm water and was snapping fresh the tough ends off asparagus stalks when I walked into the kitchen.  She told me she had the grill heating, so we started making the sauce.  I decided to reduce the recipe by about ½, so I peeled and diced one medium shallot and sauteed it in a small enameled sauce pan with about 1 Tbsp. of butter and olive oil for about five minutes until the shallots softened.  I then added ¼ cup of port and about 2 Tbsp. of wild cherry chutney that had a noticeable vinegar smell (so I omitted the Balsamic vinegar), a handful of dried cherries and a pinch of ground cardamom.  I then went to the garden and picked two stalks of Italian broad leaf parsley and a stalk of mint.  I minced about 1 tsp. of mint leaves and put them into the sauce and then ½ cup of chicken stock and cooked the sauce down for about fifteen minutes while Suzette grilled the pork chops. The sauce reduced but did not thicken, so I stirred about 1/8 tsp. of cornstarch and a pinch of sea salt into the sauce and it developed a sheen and thickened a bit.

The result was about 1 cup of fruity sauce that had a medium thickness.  Just what I wanted, not too gooey and not to runny.

While I made the sauce Suzette steamed the asparagus and grilled the pork chops.

After about fifteen minutes Suzette brought the chops in and checked them and they were still a bit too pink for her taste, so she checked the asparagus and turned off the heat under the steamer and took the chops back out for another couple of minutes of grilling while I was finishing the sauce and flipped the sauteed squash to heat it evenly on both sides.

When the chops were ready, we plated dinner, I garnished the squash and pork chop with some minced parley and opened the wine.  We ate a lovely dinner as we watched the news and the early indications that the Republican Party would take control of the Senate. 

The sauce was amazingly balanced, without any sharp edges of flavor, but a very integrated flavor.   Apparently the vinegar and sugar in the chutney and port blended with the cardamom and shallot and chicken stock to make a coherent sauce.  The way I can tell that a sauce is correct is when I can not taste any of its constituent elements.  

The construction of the sauce is an example of how to adjust your recipe to the ingredients you have.  Since I did not have cherry jam but had a rather vinegary cherry chutney I adjusted the recipe by substituting the chutney and omitting the vinegar. This adjustment demonstrated that the cherry chutney that had been sitting in our cupboard for years made a perfect sauce ingredient.  I love this new sauce recipe. Voila. 

The wine also was very complementary with the dish.  The only complaint I can make is there were no harsh or jarring flavors.  Everything looked pleasant and was tasty, although a little bland, which can be nice sometimes, especially when the sauce is fruity, not too sweet or bitter, and very delicious.

After dinner we finished off the chocolate ice cream and I had a few chocolate truffles with a glass of calvados.

Bon Appétit