January 3, 2003
Tuscan Style Pork Chops
Tuscan Style Pork Loin Chop
American Club, Kohler Wis
(from Associated Press)
The author claims that there can many substutions based on whats in season or affordbvle. He’s right. I’ve done this with Filet Mignon, too.
| Pork and Marinade | Procedure |
| 1 Tbs Chopped Fresh Rosemary | |
| 1Â Tbs Chopped Fresh Thyme | See * comments |
| 1/8 tsp Salt | |
| 1/8 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper | |
| 1 Tbs Olive Oil | Mix together |
| Four 6 to 8 oz bone-in Pork loin chops | Coat chops with mix, marinate refrigerated for a day, or a couple hours, or not at all. |
| Preheat oven to 350 F | |
| Vegetable Saute & Pork Browning | |
| 2 Tbs olive oil | |
| 12 small pearl onions, whole, or peeled cipollini onions, whole | To peel (either type), boil for 3 minutes, rinse in cold water, slice off the root end and if needed the top and peel off the first layer. 2 minutes might be enough. Or defrost some frozen ones. |
| 12 whole garlic cloves, peeled | I used 8 and was later told it needed more garlic cloves. |
| 8 Crimini Mushrooms (4 oz), cut into sixths. | White button & Italian Brown button are “Crimini’, so use whats affordable. Â I like mushrooms so I used 8 large. See ** |
| In a large oven proof skillet on medium heat, heat 2 Tbs olive oil and saute the onions, garlic and mushrooms for 4 to 5 minutes | |
| Push veggies to the sides of the skillet and brown the chops 1 to 2 minutes per side. | |
| Place saute pan in oven for 15 minutes until temperate reaches 160F (25 minutes to 140 worked just fine for me) *** Â Meanwhile make the Polenta | |
| Polenta | |
| 3 cups 2% milk | Bring to a slow or medium boil. Â 2% is also know as low fat, skim milk, around here |
| Salt and Pepper to taste | |
| 3/4 cup corn meal | Slowly whisk in cornmeal, stirring constantly until a smooth mush forms. Reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, stirring when you need something to do |
| 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese | Mix cheese into the corn meal goop. Remove from heat, cover and keep warm. |
| Finishing | When polenta and pork is nearly done, remove pork from oven and transfer pork and veggies to a cassarole dish. Turn oven off. Put casserole dish and Polenta into oven to keep warm. |
| 1/2 Marsala wine **** | Put (empty) saute pan on burner over med heat and add wine. **** Reduce heat to simmer and reduce to half. Scape up any bits, of course. |
| 1/2 cup Chicken broth | Add to broth to pan and bring to simmer |
| 6 Roma Tomatos, quatered | Or two god awful expensive small hydropic red squishy things, seeded. Add to pan and bring to low simmer. |
| 1/4 pound Fresh Baby Spinach | Or 1/3 bag of that cellophaned stuff your going to buy instead
Add to the juice/drippings, tomato goo. |
| Cook 2 to 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper and reduce. It won’t be a gravy and you don’t want the spinach to melt down. Somewhere in between. | |
| Serving | Scoop out some polenta into the center of the plate. A good hunk. Like you would with mashed taters waiting for gravy. |
| Put one porker on the plate, slop some of the onion/garlic mushrooms around it and then a spoonful or two of the tomato/spinach/wine sauce on top of the polenta |
Cooks Comments
| 2/3/02 – CJC. Obviously, you’ll need to prepare all the ingredients before you start. Get all the nitty gritty work done ahead of time. That will give you time for a beer between Sauteing and Polenta and maybe even one between Polenta and Finishing. I couldn’t be bothered to ask the butcher for thick bone in pork chops. I went with the usual 1″ thick boneless pre-packaged chops, 1.5 lb worth. 3 of those critters will serve oh lets see, maybe 3 people. |
Notes
| *The price of fresh rosemary and fresh thyme was too dear so I used 1/2 tsp dried and slightly crushed rosemary and thyme; marinated for 4 hours in the fridge, turning three times.
**I’ve been told that Portobello mushrooms are the mature, fully grown common mushrooms (crimini). I’m certainly willing to believe that. Portabellos cost twice what the common button mushrooms does which is reasonable if it takes more time and space to get the big ones. Â . This does not however explain the premium you pay, compared to portabellos for “baby portabellos” which are three times the price of the cremini. ‘d be happy to learn I’ve got this all wrong but if I’m right, you all should vote with the wallet before you buy the baby portabellos. ***I always saute at too low a temp. Its a personal failing. Med high (6 or 7 ) on a scale of 10 , might be better when sauteing the veggies and browning the chops. (or between 7 or ****There are two kinds of Marsala, Dry and Sweet, and most recipes never distquinsh between the two. Thats because most recipes really mean Dry Sweet works just fine for this one though, so I’d vote for using what you have, and if you don’t have any, buy the dry and The newpaper claim that you can use Maderia, Sweet Port or apple |
