Pork Chops with Pear & Pecan Salsa

Pork chops. Pears. Pecans. Mmmmm. The letter P sure tastes good over here at It's All Gravy. In fact, it seems to be the recipe letter of the week. Not surprisingly, tomorrow we're having pizza. I promise it wasn't on purpose. My subconscious probably propelled me to produce a plethora of palate-pleasing plates for you to prepare.

Sorry.

I've made this recipe a LOT of times. It's one of my husband's top ten favorite meals that I make. His other favorites in the list are my white sauce chicken enchiladas, chicken posole, eggplant parmesan, pan-seared filet mignon, steelhead trout, orange beef stir fry, chipotle pork chili, minestrone, and one other I can't think of right now (all of those recipes will come in the future — look for the trout recipe next week). I found the original recipe for these pork chops in some old cooking magazine at a hole-in-the-wall auto shop I was waiting in once for a few hours, and I scribbled it down and then revamped it at home. I don't remember the magazine, but my recipe has been adapted from that one.

I like to buy a whole pork loin (loin — not tenderloin) and slice half of it into chops of any thickness I want and then freeze the other half for a pork roast or pulled pork BBQ in the crockpot. It's a great way to get two meals out of a $14 loin.

PORK CHOPS with PEAR & PECAN SALSA

Ingredients:

4-6 pork chops, depending on thickness

salt & pepper to taste

1 3-inch piece of fresh ginger root

2 ripe pears (I like to use Anjou for this recipe), cored and diced

1/2 cup pecans, toasted briefly & chopped

1 Tb ground ginger (optional)

1 Tb brown sugar

1 can guava nectar (you won't use the whole can)*

To make:

Peel and grate the fresh ginger until you have a tablespoon of it and set aside. Slice the rest of the ginger into thin strips.

In a medium bowl, mix the diced pears, pecans, the ginger you just grated, the ground ginger (this is optional because I like a LOT of ginger — you will probably want to taste the salsa without this ingredient and decide if you want to take the ginger plunge. If your significant other is a redhead, congratulations. You've already taken the ginger plunge) the brown sugar, and a tablespoon of the guava nectar. Give it a good stir and set aside — you're done with the salsa.

Heat an oil with a moderately high smoke point in a skillet (preferably cast iron, or any non-Teflon — you get the best brown bits this way) over medium-high heat. I like to use coconut oil. Spectrum has one that does NOT taste like coconut at all. Nutiva coconut oil on the other hand does taste pretty strongly of coconut, so if you don't want your dinner to taste like a piña colada, stay away from that one or use it on your face instead of in your food. Anyway, put the sliced ginger in the hot oil and fry it on both sides for about a minute, total. You're just trying to flavor the oil in this step. Because mmmmmmmm, ginger.

Remove and discard the fried ginger pieces. Sprinkle salt & pepper on both sides of the pork chops and add to the hot oil in the skillet. You may need to do the chops in two batches depending on the size of your skillet and the number of chops you're using. Sauté about three minutes per side. I wish I could give you an exact time here, but again, it's going to depend on the thickness of your chops. After six minutes, cut a slice in the thickest part of one and check the inside for doneness. 

Put your cooked chops on a serving plate and keep them warm. Pour off the oil in your skillet and put back on the burner but turn the heat down to medium. Add 1/2 cup of guava nectar to the hot skillet and scrape up all the crispy brown bits. Simmer this for about three or four minutes until it thickens. Pour the guava pan sauce over the chops and serve with the salsa. We also like to have jasmine rice & black beans with ours.

I wish there were leftovers. But I ate them.