This was my dinner creation this evening:
Heat some olive oil in a deep, heavy, lidded frying pan
Brown 3 pork chops and remove from pan, drain excess oil, leaving enough to cover the bottom of the pan. Scrape the browned bits loose.
Toss a tablespoon of fennel seeds and a clove in the hot oil and return the pork chops to the pan
Add salt and pepper, 1/2 cup orange juice, juice of one-half lemon, and a couple pieces of orange zest. Add enough water to cover.
Bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer covered at least one hour. The pork chops should be easily pulled apart with a fork. Keep adding water if needed.
When the pork chops are finished, remove the lid and boil down the sauce until thick.
Add about a cup of lightly sweetened apricot puree, mix with the sauce and cook till warm
I served this with homemade bread and sweet potatoes. It was UNBELIEVABLE. The cloves and fennel and orange zest made the apricot spicy and tangy.
Not fair to make me drool while I'm at work. NOT. FAIR.
Posted by: JWebb | September 28, 2007 at 06:55 PM
Wow, sounds really good.
Posted by: Scott P | September 28, 2007 at 07:34 PM
Heyyy! Gonna give that a try.
Posted by: HA HA HA | September 28, 2007 at 08:49 PM
Arlington, you can always add more zest or more clove to it. It wouldn't have hurt to put in two cloves and twice as much zest although it was great the way it was.
Posted by: gail | September 28, 2007 at 09:02 PM
My theory is, if you don't know how to season it, toss in a clove.
Posted by: gail | September 28, 2007 at 09:08 PM
I've recently discovered brining, and if you ever know in advance that you are going to do pork chops they are perfect for that technique. Just leave them overnight in a salt-water solution (I throw some pickling spices in the mix too) and the meat is soooooo tender when cooked.
This sounds great--thanks for passing along!
Posted by: ken | September 29, 2007 at 08:58 AM