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Wednesday, June 09, 2010

A month of silence, broken by... a recipe. Fabulous.

(I am brewing a books post. I am always brewing a books post, I know, but with the onset of summer and a sudden near-glut of free time -- or what feels like a glut of free time compared to the jury duty/college/finals/home-school-wrap-up/garden-panic month that was May -- who knows? Maybe one will someday soon magically appear in this space.)

Tonight I made an experimental dinner and it turned out OK so I wanted to put the recipe in a place I'm not likely to lose it. Yes, I pay money to host an absurdly long domain name so that I can have a searchable, online recipe file. Right?

Without further ado (ha ha! my LIFE is all about further ado):

Pork Chops with Caramelized Apples and Onions
with a side of Roasted-Garlic Mashed Potatoes
and Green Beans that are Slightly Less Boring than the Ones In A Can

First I took a head of garlic, sliced off the top, peeled off the outside paper, and wrapped it (garlic, not paper) in oiled aluminum foil. I put it in the oven at 350º. It takes about an hour for it to roast. (Yes, I felt actual guilt about running the whole oven for an HOUR just for a little head of garlic.) I pulled some home-frozen green beans out of the freezer -- fresh would be better, but you can't have everything -- and set them in the steamer, ready to go when needed.

Then I started out with a couple of pounds of pork steak (item: how is this different from pork chops?), sliced pretty thin. I rubbed this on both sides with pressed garlic, coarse pepper, and kosher salt* and let it sit while I got the potatoes ready. (This is just your standard mashed-potato preparation -- wash, peel, and chop a couple of potatoes per person and set them in water on the stove; turn on the heat and when they come to a boil, let them boil merrily along for fifteen minutes or so.)

While the potatoes did their potato-y business, I cooked the pork steaks in a little bit of oil on mediumish heat until they were done and brown on both sides. While THEY cooked, I peeled and sliced (thin slices are good) four green apples and one yellow onion; then I tossed the slices together with a little bit of oil, some coarse pepper, and some kosher salt.

About this time I started the steamer with the green beans in it. Thought I'd forgotten those, didn't you.

When the meat was done, I set it aside on a platter and put the onions and apples in the pan -- actually it was two pans -- and let them cook down until they were pretty soft and rather brown, stirring often. (After I'd turned them a couple of times, I put the meat on top to absorb the flavor a little.) When the apples were close to done, I heaped the apples and onions and meat all in one pan and used the other one to sauté the steamed green beans with a little butter, coarse pepper, and kosher salt.

I took the garlic out of the oven, unwrapped it, and after it had cooled a little I squeezed the pasty roasted garlic out of the cloves with the side of a big kitchen knife. I added the garlic glop to the potatoes I'd just drained along with an unholy amount of butter (Grandma always used one tablespoon per potato and who am I to mess with tradition?) and -- you guessed it -- some coarse pepper and kosher salt. When mashing the potatoes, you want ot make sure to mix everything together, but leave them a little bit coarse.

Serve each person a pork steak with apple and onion stuff on top; put some mashed potatoes and green beans on each plate. No gravy required or desired. (Even if your husband insists. He won't keep insisting for long, I promise.)

I'm tired just writing about it. But mmm, it was good.

*I may never buy olive oil but heaven help you if you hide my kosher salt. Seriously.