What to do when your favorite sous chef (that would be my sweetie, Elizabeth) finds a good deal at the grocery store for family packs of pork chops? Good deal as in buy two packs of them when you only need half of one... It turns out that "Cotes de Porc Sauce Nenette" (Pork chops with mustard, cream, and tomato sauce) was the perfect solution. Here's the story that included a couple of new steps. First the marinade...
French "marinades" are a bit different than what you typically think of as a marinade if your experience has been limited to pouring a liquid over a chunk of meat for awhile before you toss it on a grill. As Julia explains, meat that has had a marinade applied "will be tenderer and have a more interesting flavor." I'm certainly all about being interesting so it seemed appropriate for me to start this off with the optional marinade. Some of the French marinades Julia told me about are more of what I'd call a "rub." This time around, however, I chose to go down the route I was more familiar with and used a marinade that was more of a liquid. Even though it looks like English, the French name for it is "Marinade Simple" which she translated as "Lemon Juice and Herb Marinade." The ingredients are pretty simple -- salt, pepper, lemon juice, olive oil, parsley, thyme, a bay leaf, and some mashed garlic. The salt and pepper were rubbed into the meat and then the liquid mixture was poured over the meat and it was allowed to soak for a couple of hours.
After the chops had marinated for awhile, they were removed from the marinade and then dried with paper towels. The drying part is actually a bit important because the next step is to brown the chops in a skillet -- if they are still wet from the marinade they'll steam more than they will brown. See, Elizabeth, there really was a reason I went through half a roll of paper towels!
A bit of olive oil was put into a skillet over moderate heat and the pork chops were browned on both sides for about three minutes on each side. Then they were laid out in my casserole pan, slightly overlapping each other in the pan. About 2 tablespoons of butter were in the pan and after it was heated until the meat began to sizzle. Then the casserole went into the oven at 325 degrees for about 25 minutes. This would be a great time to take a look at the photos below -- don't they look amazing?
While the chops were finishing in the oven I went about preparing for the sauce. As I type this, I realize I actually did it wrong. Hmmmmmmm, nobody noticed and the sauce still turned out great! The sauce began with one and a half cups of cream simmering in a saucepan (with a dash of salt and pepper) until it reduced to about one cup. While that was simmering I mixed a tablespoon of mustard and two tablespoons of tomato paste. That's where I now realize I made a mistake -- I was supposed to use a tablespon of "dry English mustard" and not the prepared mustard that I used. Oh well. Lesson here: Even mistakes can taste great! After being beat together, the hot cream was peat together with the mustard and tomato mixture.
When the chops were done, they were removed from the casserole and then the cream/mustard/tomato mixture was poured into the casserole for about four minutes while being stirred together with some parsley. This would be a good time to take another look at the pictures below -- didn't that sauce look great? When poured on top of the meat it looked great and tasted even better!
I have no idea what "Nenette" really means but it sure did taste good. Yet another recipe that I'l be making again someday. I sure hope Elizabeth buys too many pork chops again soon!
Bon Appetit
Who would have thought mustard in a sauce could be so good.