Braised Pork Chops with Garlic and White Beans

Last Christmas, I received a wonderful book from Stephen called Wine and Food: A New Look at Flavor, Williams-Sonoma. Being a Williams-Sonoma book, it is naturally filled with page after page of beguiling photographs of food and wine as well as tempting recipes for great food; however, this book takes a new approach to demystifying the art of pairing food and wine. Wines are broken out by what they refer to as flavor profiles, and dishes are dissected to highlight the main ingredients as well as companion ingredients that are the keys to pairing the food with wine. In addition, cooking methods are listed and associated with certain types of wine.

The wines themselves are also broken apart into categories such as soft whites, juicy reds and other terms that are a bit more approachable to those of us who are not editors for "Wine Spectator". This approach to pairing may seem somewhat more highbrow than the old rules of red wine with red meats and white wines with chicken and fish, but they actually make a lot more sense. This book has taught me to pay more attention to the flavors you add to a food rather than just the main ingredient to create an appealing combination of food and wine.

Last night, I tried a recipe from this book for pork chops braised with garlic and white beans. The book suggested several matches for the dish, including some rich whites (white Rioja or a Cotes du Rhone Blanc) and some alternative pairings, such as a Grenache-based rose or a Cotes du Rhone Rouge (a juicy red). Since we always prefer to drink red wines with dinner and we did not have a Cotes du Rhone on hand, we drank a Montepulciano de Abruzzo from Italy.

Montepulciano is a relatively simple wine with mild tannins, good acidity and flavors of dried cherries, earth and even some gaminess - perfect with a rustic, slow-cooked pork dish. The fact that I substituted fennel seed for the sage in the recipe created an even stronger link between the wine and the food. This wine is not what I would call a "sipping wine" but rather an old-world style wine that is meant to be enjoyed with food. As the book mentioned with the Cotes du Rhone, a juicy red wine such as this made the braised pork taste even meatier.

Here is the recipe for the pork, which has been altered slightly from the original:

Pork Chops Braised with Garlic and White Beans

4 center-cut pork chops (thick cut)
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 T olive oil
1 large yellow onion, diced
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
8 whole cloves of garlic
1/4 t red pepper flakes
2 t fennel seed
1 3/4 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
2 cans white beans, drained and rinsed
1/4 c chopped fresh Italian parsley

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Season the pork chops all over with salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium high heat. Add the pork chops and sear, turning halfway until browned (about 6 to 8 minutes total). This is best done in 2 batches. Transfer chops to a platter.

Reduce heat to medium low. Add the onion, carrots, garlic and red pepper. Stir well, scraping the brown bits from the pan, about 4 minutes. Add the fennel seed and broth and bring to a boil. Nestle the pork chops back into the pan, cover and braise in the oven for 20 minutes.

While the pork is cooking, mash half of the white beans in a bowl with a potato masher or fork. Add both the mashed and whole beans to the pot after the pork has braised for 20 minutes. Uncover the pot and return to the oven. Braise for 15 to 20 minutes longer or until the sauce thickens slightly and the pork is tender.
Spoon the sauce into shallow bowls and top with the pork. Garnish with parsley. Serve right away with slices of rustic bread.

Serves 4

Pork Cutlets with Pears and Port Sauce

Pork and pears are a natural combination. Both are most appealing in the fall/winter months and conjure up images of the kind of delicious fare one might find at a farmhouse in France. This dish is what I would call quick comfort food – certainly practical for a weeknight, yet satisfying enough to make your family look forward to dinner. Here is the recipe:

Pork Cutlets with Pears and Port Sauce

2 Bosc or Bartlett pears, ripe but not soft, peeled, cored and quartered
2 T unsalted butter
8 boneless pork cutlets, sliced thin
flour for dredging
1 t dried thyme
2 T olive oil
¼ c minced red onion
½ c Tawny port
¾ c low sodium chicken broth
1 T flour
1 T unsalted butter
salt and pepper to taste

In a large skillet (not nonstick!), melt 2 T butter and saute pears on medium heat until tender, about 10 minutes. Transfer to a medium bowl and set aside.

Prepare a dredging plate of several tablespoons of flour with the thyme leaves, a pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Heat 1/2 T of olive oil in the skillet until hot. Lightly dredge the pork cutlets in the flour and saute 1 to 2 minutes on each side until just cooked and lightly browned. Work in batches of 2 cutlets at a time with 1/2 T olive oil per batch and transfer pork to a platter kept in a warm oven.

When the pork cutlets are cooked, add the red onion to the pan and saute about 2 minutes until slightly tender. Pour in the port and deglaze the pan for 2 minutes, scraping the browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Pour in all but 1 T of the broth and mix the remaining broth with the 1 T of flour in a small bowl for thickening of the sauce. Add flour mixture to skillet. Cook on medium heat until the sauce reduces by half, about ten minutes. Add 1 T butter to the sauce as well as salt and pepper to taste. Return the pears and pork to the sauce and combine.

Transfer the pork, pears and port sauce to a platter for serving.

Serves 4