Pork Chop with Apple Cream Sauce

This informal weeknight dish can be put together in about as long as it takes to cook a good thick pork chop, but the results taste like something you might get at your favorite little hard to find French restaurant.  For prep, cut up two Granny Smith apples thinly – in any size that you eventually would like to eat

them.  As I cooked this batch of apples, I found that they do break down in the pan, especially with an added liquid, very quickly, so too thin and the apple loses its texture and crispness quickly if not careful.  Mince up as much of a shallot or two as you like – shallots are a more potent onion than a standard white, yellow or red, but by the same token, if browned to a crisp, adds crystals of flavor in a sauce.

Feeding kids, I've found you never want to overpower with any onion, but at the same time, used sparingly, even a kid might comment that the dish, whatever it is, was better because of it.  While browning the shallots in one pan, place the thick portioned chops, spiced with salt, pepper, and the small but aromatic small leaves of thyme, onto a medium to high pan heat, making sure that the chop creates a brown exterior, but not so much heat that the two inch center doesn't get done.  I usually go

for a barely visible fleshy pink color even in a chop, which ensures that we don't get the old school dried out version, but instead a juicy version, which makes tummies smile and kids ask the question when they get pork chops again.  The meat preparation is important because there is a funky sauce that is going to go over them and that is the challenge of presentation.  As the chops cook, add the apples into the pan with the shallots and let the slices pick up the bits of brown onion until you can feel the slices soften, then a cup of apple cider (recipe calls for hard cider), and let reduce to something closer to a thick sauce, then chop up four or five softened prunes, add those, and again wait for them to break down some.  The final step is the part that turns this very simple recipe from a fruit and chop combo to something a bit more gourmet – add a cup of heavy cream to the apple, shallot, cider, prune combination and let that thicken.

The richness of the cream works wonders on the acids and fruits from the liquid.  Pour the sauce sparingly over the kids' portions so not to overwhelm the simplicity and edibility of the chop.  If done well, the fork with a slice of chop on it will seek out every last dollop of the apple cream sauce.  No need to talk much about onions, prunes or cream, just that this is a 'repeatable dish."