A Love Affair With Southern Cooking_ Recipes and Recollections - Jean Anderson [60]
With demands for Ossabaw pork growing, traditional hog farmers are paying attention. Unfortunately, breeding stock is so limited the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy considers the numbers “critical.” Moreover, writes New York Times reporter Peter Kaminsky, “Slow Food USA has placed the Ossabaw on its metaphorical ark of endangered breeds that have been singled out for preservation.”
Now quarantined, the feral Ossabaws cannot be taken off their Georgia island. Yet hunters are allowed to kill them because they eat the eggs of loggerhead turtles, an even more endangered species.
Mainly available to chefs at present, Ossabaw pork is beginning to show up at farmer’s markets down south: bacons, chops, roasts, sausages. Everything but the squeal.
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PORK CHOPS WITH PECAN AND ONION STUFFING
MAKES 6 SERVINGS
Southerners have always had a penchant for stuffing things: tomatoes large and small, bell peppers, eggplant, yellow squash, mirlitons, fish, shellfish. Pork chops too, of course. This recipe, my own, teams pork and pecans, a felicitous combination, but I often substitute peanuts (see the Variation that follows). As with the previous pork chop recipe, indeed with any pork chop recipe, choosing pork that hasn’t had the succulence bred out of it is key. Otherwise, the chops will toughen and dry. Note: If things are to move smoothly, prepare the stuffing first; it can wait but the pork chops can’t. Tip: Toast the pecans before you chop them: Spread in a pie pan and set on the middle shelf of a 350° F. oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until fragrant. But watch carefully lest they burn.
Stuffing
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 medium yellow onion, moderately coarsely chopped
1 medium celery rib, trimmed and finely diced
2 medium garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 cup finely chopped, lightly toasted pecans (see Tip above)
2 cups coarsely crumbled stale, dry, firm-textured white bread (4 slices)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped parsley
1 teaspoon poultry seasoning
¾ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon black pepper 3 to 4 tablespoons hot chicken broth (about)
Pork Chops
Six 1¾-inch-thick, bone-in pork loin chops, 1 rib per chop (about 5 pounds)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ cup hot chicken broth
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F.
2. For the stuffing: Heat the oil in a large, heavy skillet over moderately high heat for about 2 minutes or until ripples appear on the skillet bottom. Add the onion, celery, and garlic; reduce the heat to moderate; and cook, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until the vegetables are limp. Mix in all remaining ingredients, adding only enough chicken broth to hold the stuffing together; it shouldn’t be wet. Scoop the stuffing into a small bowl and reserve. Scrape the skillet well, then wipe with paper toweling so that you can use it to brown the chops. No point in dirtying two skillets.
3. For the pork chops: Using a small sharp knife and beginning on the outer curved edge (the one with the thin layer of fat), cut a pocket into each pork chop that’s about 4 inches wide and 2½ to 3 inches deep. If you can sweet-talk your butcher into doing the job for you, so much the better. Pack the reserved stuffing into the pockets in the pork chops, dividing the total amount evenly.
4. Heat the oil in the skillet over moderately high heat for 1 minute, then brown the chops in two batches, allowing 3 to 4 minutes per side per chop. Remove from the heat, then lay the pork chops on their sides in an ungreased 13 × 9 × 2-inch baking pan. Sprinkle with the salt and pepper and pour the hot chicken broth into the pan around the chops.
5. Cover the pan snugly with foil, slide onto the middle oven shelf, and bake for about 40 minutes