Pork chops are chicken breasts with apples and pears.
We have boneless pork chops here
and I was just malleting them out.
Now, when we mallet,
you should really just drop the mallet
and push away from yourself or draw near yourself.
My husband loves pork.
My sister doesn't care for it.
So, I make this with chicken for her on the same night
I make this with pork chop for him
and I just dredge it in a little bit of AP flour
and we shake off all of the excess of that.
We've got the chops, salt, pepper, thyme
and now I'm gonna slide some olive oil,
cooking grade olive oil, back over the flame
and we're gonna brown these guys up.
You want the oil to ripple
and start to have a little movement to it
before you add the protein to the pan.
So back here we have apples and pears.
I like to use fruit that's a little under ripe.
When I serve this, I usually take a cabbage of some sort,
a small cabbage 'cause we grow cabbage
or you can shred up brussel sprouts
and cook them off with a little bit of panchetta or bacon
or guanciale, pork cheeks.
I just saute them up a little bit on the side
'cause I really love the flavor of cabbage
and that salty fatty coating on the crispy cabbage
to go alongside the fruit.
For the fruit we're going to add,
it's cooking in butter,
the apples and pears are cooking and butter
and we're gonna add a drizzle of honey
or as I said, maple syrup 'cause we always have maple syrup.
So a little fat drizzle, honey or maple syrup.
A pinch of cinnamon or I use smoked cinnamon actually,
I really love the flavor.
The juice of half a lemon for a little brightness
and then a little bit of thyme,
just like we put on the chops,
which I should probably flip
and your choice of hard cider or cloudy cider.
We've taken our pork chops, browned them,
salt, pepper and thyme, out of the pan.
In the pan, shallot in the drippings and a little butter.
Now we're going to add
and if you don't cook a lot with spirits
it's truly best because flame ups might surprise you.
(audience laughing)
But, I think it's fun, but if you don't dig it,
what you should do is just pull the pan off of the stove.
I'm adding a splash of brandy
(audience applause)
or apple brandy, Calvados
and we just add it off the stove
and gently place it back on the stove
and then we're gonna add our cream.
Remember this is a la mode,
so we're gonna put in,
about three quarter of a cup of cream,
as little or as much as you like.
Recipes are just that, they're suggestions
and they're meant to just make people happy
and to get them in the mood to share.
That's what food is,
it's about the feeling and the experience,
it's not about perfection,
it's not about who did this or who wrote that,
it's about just getting in there and sharing something
of yourself with whoever you love
and that includes yourself.
So we're gonna take all of this creamy
delicious cooky stuff.
(audience applause)
Put it over the top of that
and then we're going to take a ton,
this is from Oscar's near my house, they ship,
this is triple X cheddar,
the sharpest cheddar I've ever had.
(audience applause)
Put cheddar all over it
and then I'm gonna melt in brown this.
So just putting the heat back under the brussel sprouts
with a little bit of guanciale or guanciale or bacon,
whatever you'd like and then the a la mode sauce
with the browned cheese.
(audience applause)
I know, it's really heavy, but it's so delicious.
So we're going to, oh my God,
(audience applause) shut the door.
Shut the door.
(audience applause)