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Glazed Pork Chops - Parmesan Potatoes - Wine Choice

Glazed Pork Chops
4 double-cut pork loin chops, 1 1/2-2 inches thick

1/2 cup olive oil                                    1/2 cup brandy
1/4 cup brown sugar                             1/4 cup cider vinegar
2 tbsp chopped parsley                         2 tbsp thyme
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine all the ingredients.  Place the pork chops in a shallow pan and pour marinade over them.  Leave in pan for 1 hour.
In a skillet over high heat combine 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp olive oil. Pan-sear the chops in the butter and oil making sure they're well browned before removing. Transfer the chops to a large roasting pan. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Roast pork chops for 15-20 minutes.

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Parmesan Potatoes

6 cups peeled potato slices (5-6 medium)
4 tbsp. melted butter
1/2 grated Parmesan cheese

Rinse potatoes and pat dry.
Brush 1 tbsp. of butter onto the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate. Toss potatoes with remaining 3 tbsp. of butter and 1/4 of the cheese.
Place potato slices in several layers in the pie pan. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Bake at 425 degrees for 1 hour or until potatoes are tender.

Makes 8 servings

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WINE CHOICE

This month, I started out with an idea.  Karen had mentioned pork chops early on, so I knew what I should expect, and lately I have begun to fall into a pattern on what to serve with pork: apple wine.

We spend a lot of time touring wineries, often on quick weekend day trips.  You find a lot of interesting people and wines that way, usually in small, out of the way places.  One of the dangers of touring tasting rooms that way is that you end up with a number of bottles  you somehow don't drink.  They seemed like a good thought when you bought them, but the opportunities to drink all those dessert wines and unusual wines you have in the cellar seem to be few and far between.  Often we hesitate to open a bottle because there are only two of us and we won't finish it.

Since we live on the East Coast, we often find wineries that offer fruit wines, which are generally not to our taste.  But over time, we have ended up with a few gathering dust under the stairs.  For some reason, they ended up being apple lately.  This year Karen decided we should drink them with pork, and that idea worked out well.  In fact, when I went down to get one I discovered the idea had worked so well we only had one left.

That was the Clover Hill Spiced Apple.  I'd been saving it for more towards the holidays, since it is spiced lightly with cinammon, but the time seemed right.  Since Karen's recipe called for a little brandy, I rooted around while I was down there and found a little Laird's Apple Jack left in a bottle we could finish off.

Then I started thinking.  Suppose I didn't drop by wineries -- where would I find apple wine?  So I dropped by my local wine store and checked one or two online.  It was about as I expected.  Apple wine either wasn't available, or was not something I wanted to buy.  When it did exist on the shelf, it seemed to be about on the level with the cheap examples I remember people bringing to college parties long ago.

So I needed some other ideas for this month.  I thought that over feverishly, and came to the conclusion that this dish would need something light and fruity: an Italian Dolcetto, a French Beaujolais, a Spanish Rioja (a Crianza, not a Reserva).  I thought about a  white, but I really couldn't come up with one that I thought would match up with both the glaze on the chops and the parmesan on the potatoes. 

Lesson to be learned: not everything exists down at the local wine store.  One more reason to drop by those small, out of the way wineries.  You never know what they might have.

Glazed Pork Chops - Parmesan Potatoes - Wine Choice

 Last modified: August 07, 2007