This one was a winner tonight. It's adapted from a recipe that originally appeared in the NYT. The Pomodoro tomatoes are an essential ingredient.
2 tablespoons of Olive Oil
3 lbs. Pork Chops
1 12-oz package of Portobello mushrooms, sliced
1/3 cup dry Vermouth
1 28-oz can of Pomodoro Tomatoes in puree, broken up
1 large Yellow Onion, chopped
6-10 cloves of garlic, minced
3 cups of Chicken Stock (unsalted) boiled down to 1/2 cup
2 tablespoons of fresh Rosemary, chopped
2 tablespoond of fresh Thyme
Salt and pepper
Prepare the following ingredients in a bowl:
- Pomodoro tomatoes, broken up into smaller pieces,
- Onions and Garlic,
- Reduced Chicken Stock
- Rosemary
- Thyme
Heat Olive Oil in large, heavy-bottomed frying pan.
Season Pork Chops with Salt and Pepper and place in frying pan. Brown over medium heat (about 7 minutes on each side). Cook in two or more batches if necessary.
Remove Pork Chops and add sliced mushrooms to pan. Saute until lightly browned and deglaze pan with wine.
Add mushrooms and wine to bowl with other ingredients and mix.
Place browned Pork Chops in frying pan and cover with mixture from bowl. Place the Pork Chops in two layers, if necessary.
Cover the frying pan and cook on lowest heat for about two hours or until the pork is very tender and almost falling off the bone.
Remove the Pork Chops and bring the remaining contents of the pan to a boil, stirring until thickened to the consistency of a sauce. Season to taste with Salt and Pepper, spoon over Pork Chops, and serve.
In a different lifetime, in a different world, at the age of early twenties I was on 2 month African overlander from Nairobi to Botswana/Zimbabwe and for most of that time, the only meat was tinned corned beef mixed with avocado, when available, mixed by the Aussi girls for breakfast, lunch and dinner - I swore and have upheld, I'd never eat that again - occasionally relieved by a stringy, yellow local chicken, or some darker local meat carved off a hanging carcass where the "butcher's " job was to squirt fly-spray direct on to it. Anyway, near then end when we crossed into Zimbabwe at Vic Falls, we went to the German butcher. And there burned on my brain, were the biggest, leanest pork chops I had, and have hence ever seen, in my life. Weeping, I bought two and over the open fire, grilled them with nothing more than a pinch of salt and wept again at the taste. So that's my recipe.
