Creamy baby bella sauce
Makes: about 1 ½ cups
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
½ pound fresh baby bella or button mushrooms, thinly sliced ¼ cup dry white wine or vermouth
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 or 6 fresh (or reconstituted dried) small morel mushrooms, halved, optional
1 tablespoon drained capers
½ teaspoon dried porcini powder, optional
½ teaspoon minced fresh rosemary or ¼ teaspoon dried Salt, freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup mascarpone or heavy (whipping) cream, plus more as needed
1 or 2 skinny green onions, trimmed, thinly sliced
1. Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add 2 tablespoons butter and ½ pound sliced mushrooms. Saute until nicely golden, 3 to 4 minutes. Add ¼ cup dry white wine and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half.
2. Add 2 thinly sliced garlic cloves and cook 1 minute. Add 4 to 6 halved morel mushrooms if desired, 1 tablespoon drained capers, ½ teaspoon dried porcini powder and ½ teaspoon minced fresh rosemary (or ¼ teaspoon dried). Season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon fresh black pepper.
3. Swirl in ¼ cup mascarpone or heavy cream until heated through. Add green onions.
4. Cover and refrigerate up to several days. Reheat to serve, adding a little water (or more cream) to loosen the sauce as desired.
Notes: Baby bella mushrooms, aka cremini mushrooms, are simply small-sized portabella mushrooms. Their darker color and deeper flavor taste great here, but button mushrooms work, too. If you have access to morels, fresh or reconstituted dry, they add a superb flavor and texture as well.
Cherry balsamic gastrique
Makes: about 2 cups 1 tablespoon unsalted butter 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 medium red onion, halved, thinly sliced in wedges
¾ cup dry red wine
1 clove garlic, finely chopped 1 teaspoon minced fresh jalapeno or ¼ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes, optional
1 ½ to 2 cups (about 8 ounces) frozen pitted sweet or tart red cherries (or a combination), thawed 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, plus more to taste ½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper or grains of paradise
1. In a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon each butter and oil and swirl until butter is melted. Add 1 medium red onion, halved and sliced. Saute until soft and golden, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in ¾ cup red wine and boil hard to reduce wine by half, about 2 minutes. Stir in 1 clove chopped garlic and 1 teaspoon minced jalapeno if using; cook 1 minute.
3. Stir in 2 cups of pitted cherries and simmer until cherries are soft, 5 minutes. Stir in 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar and heat to a simmer. Season with ½ teaspoon salt and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Taste and adjust with a little more vinegar if desired. Remove from heat.
4. Mixture can be covered and refrigerated up to 4 days. Serve warm.
Notes: Look for frozen pitted cherries in the freezer case. Dried cherries softened in warm water can be substituted, as can fresh cherries in season.
Simple seared pork chops
Makes: 2 to 4 servings
2 to 4 bone-in, center-cut pork loin chops, each 1-inch thick and weighing 8 ounces
1 ½ teaspoons kosher salt or 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 ½ teaspoons sweet paprika
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon granulated garlic
1 tablespoon expeller pressed canola oil, safflower oil, sunflower oil or peanut oil
Cherry-balsamic gastrique or creamy baby bella sauce, optional, see recipes
Sliced green onions, for garnish
1. Pat chops dry and place on a plate. In a small dish, mix together 1 ½ teaspoons each kosher salt and sweet paprika along with ½ teaspoon each black pepper and granulated garlic. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over all sides of the pork chops. Cover chops loosely. If desired, refrigerate for several hours (up to 8 hours).
2. Heat oven to 400 degrees convection or 425 degrees conventional. While the oven heats, let chops come to room temperature if necessary.
3. Heat a well-seasoned cast-iron skillet, griddle or ovenproof nonstick skillet over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles on contact. Swirl oil in pan. Use tongs to add chops (in a single, uncrowded layer). Let cook, without turning, until deeply golden on the bottom, about 4 minutes. Flip chops and immediately slide the pan into the hot oven. Cook, without turning, until center of chop is slightly firm (but not hard) when pressed or 145 degrees Fahrenheit on an instant-read thermometer, 5 to 6 minutes. Remove from the oven to a plate; tent with foil to keep warm while you reheat the sauce. 4. Serve chops topped with a spoonful of your chosen sauce. Garnish with sliced green onions.
Notes: You can make any number of chops with this method, just be sure the chops are in a single, uncrowded layer in the pan. The salt mixture here is sufficient for four chops. Leftover pork tastes great thinly sliced on a sandwich or in a salad.