cherries

Grilled Pork Chops with Cherry Sauce

As you can probably tell, I’m on a New York Times recipe kick. I’m not sure how I found this recipe, but it is definitely one to save and make again!

The pork chops are rubbed with a very flavorful herb mixture. Take a quick look before you read the ingredient list.

You can find the original recipe on the NYT website, but here is my modified version of the recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 2 pork chops, bone-in, thick cut
  • 4-5 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped
  • 6-7 sprigs thyme, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, grated
  • 1 cup fresh cherries, organic if possible, pitted and halved
  • ½ cup “fruity” red wine (see note below)
  • 1 shallot, finely chopped
  • 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • Kosher salt
  • Freshly ground black pepper

So, I had to look up what “fruity” red wine meant. Based on what I read, my recommendation is to buy a Pinot Noir from California or New Zealand. I shopped at Whole Foods that day, so I also looked at the categories that were checked for each wine and picked something that said “fruity.”

Preparation:

Cook the Pork Chops

  • Combine the garlic, rosemary, thyme, 3-4 grinds of black pepper, and two small pinches of salt. Rub all over the pork chops. Marinate anywhere from 2 hours to overnight in the refrigerator. I marinated mine for about 4 hours.
  • Remove the pork chops from the refrigerator and let them get to room temperature. I often forget to do this, so my goal is to have the chops out at least 30 minutes before I cook them. That is usually how long it takes to heat up the grill. Speaking of which, heat the grill to 400 degrees!
  • We cooked the chops over direct heat, about 3 minutes per side to start. We kept checking the temperature until the internal temperature reached 140 degrees. I cannot remember the actual cooking time and to be honest, the cooking time is going to vary depending on how thick the chops are. If you start with 3 minutes per side as a rule of thumb, then go to 2 minutes per side until you reach the correct internal temperature, that usually works well. Once you take the chops off the grill, let them sit, covered, until they reach 145 degrees. They will continue to cook, so don’t worry. It should take about 5-7 minutes.

One thing to note. The NYT recipe calls for a combination of direct and indirect heat. That actually is a great method. We were a little lazy last week, so we did everything over direct. Also, if you have a Green Egg and are going to use the direct/indirect method, try starting with indirect heat first, then sear the chops on direct heat at the end for only 2 minutes per side. After watching a lot of the videos on the Green Egg site, this sees to be the most common method. This made me uncomfortable at first, because it is against everything I have learned to date. However, we have cooked steaks like this multiple times now and they turn out like butter, with the perfect amount of char.

Make the Cherry Sauce

  • Add a tablespoon(ish) of butter to the skillet. When the butter stops foaming, add the shallots and cook until tender. This will take 2-3 minutes.
  • Add the cherries and wine and let that cook until the mixture reduces to a thin syrup. This will take about 5-6 minutes.
  • Add another 2 tablespoons of butter, one at a time, until it is incorporated Add another pinch of salt and a couple of grinds of black pepper. Give the sauce a taste and adjust the flavor to your liking.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to like the sauce, so I served the sauce on the side. It definitely added something to the dish, but the chops alone had a great garlicky-herb flavor and didn’t need the cherries. It is a great way to use cherries that you have not finished eating yet for sure!

And, here is the final product…

I definitely recommend giving this recipe a try. The herb rub is versatile and could be used on anything. I think this would be great to serve on steaks!

Bon Appetit!

Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream

A couple of years ago, I was on an ice cream kick. Every trip to the grocery store resulted in me bringing home Jeni’s Bramelberry Crisp or Three Twins Chocolate Malt. All of a sudden, I decided I had to start making my own ice cream and my “cooking enabler” (a.k.a. my husband), bought me a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker.

I don’t remember the first ice cream flavor that I made, but I do remember my last…Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream!

The picture doesn’t do the ice cream justice, so you will have to trust me that it was super creamy and delicious!

This recipe obviously is going to involve an ice cream maker. You can get these relatively inexpensively and they do a great job. Make sure to read the directions on your machine in advance. You usually need to freeze the bowl overnight, so plan ahead!

Ingredients:

  • 1 ½ cups fresh cherries, washed and pitted
  • ¾ whole milk
  • 2/3 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 ½ cups heavy cream
  • 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
  • 2(ish) tablespoons of good milk or dark chocolate
  • Pinch of salt

Everything I used in this recipe was organic. At minimum, try and buy organic cherries. You leave the cherry skins on for this recipe, so I would highly recommend this.

Preparing the Ice Cream Base:

  1. Put the cherries into the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the chopping blade. Pulse the cherries until roughly chopped.
  2. In a medium bowl, combine the milk, sugar, and salt and whisk until the sugar is incorporated. You can also user a hand mixer, but I’m usually too lazy to get mine out of the pantry.
  3. Add the heavy cream, vanilla, and chopped cherries to the milk mixture. Grate in the milk or dark chocolate. Mix all of the ingredients together, pour into a shallow pan or pyrex dish, and chill (covered) for at least four hours or overnight.

By the way, I have no idea how much chocolate I really used. I just kept grating until it looked like enough. I made up the two tablespoon measurement above - please let me know how much you end up using! It also might be interesting to add a flavored chocolate bar like Mo’s Dark Chocolate Bacon Bar by Vosges.

Make the Ice Cream:

  1. Take the bowl for the ice cream maker out of the freezer, attach it to your ice cream maker, and pour in the ice cream base. Allow the ice cream maker to mix until the ice cream is thickened, about 15-20 minutes. Read the directions for your machine as times may vary.
  2. After the ice cream is mixed, pour the ice cream into plastic 32oz (tall) containers and freeze them for at least 2 hours before serving. I usually use two containers and fill them both ¾ of the way full.

Definitely give this recipe a try and let me know if you enjoyed it. I have two others for you that I’ll be posting (eventually)…Cranberry Orange Chocolate Ice Cream and Mango Sorbet. Keep watching for those!

Bon Appetit!