Pork New Orleans

I had a superb pork loin dish in New Orleans some years back and, after a lot of tinkering, I think I’ve managed to reproduce it. I like it better than the original but, well, I’m biased. It’s as basic as it gets, brine, marinade, brown, simmer in sauce. Total time for the dish is long but that’s mainly the brining and marinating. Actual cooking time is about an hour and a half. The recipe is for 4.

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4 thick pork chops

Brine:

3 c water

1/4 c Kosher salt

1/8 c brown sugar

10 or so juniper berries

2 bay leaves

Combine everything, add pork and refrigerate at least 4 hours (or overnight). If you like to play with different brines, this site has a number of excellent ones.

Marinde:

2 T olive oil

1 T soy

2 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped

sprig of fresh rosemary, chopped

Remove pork from brine, pat dry, cover with marinade and refrigerate for an hour or two.

Sauce:

2 T olive oil

1 shallot sliced thinly

1 scallion sliced thinly

2 T malt vinegar

1 T balsamic vinegar (good, aged one preferred — if you can find one).

12 oz tomato broth (or 10 oz tomato sauce and 2 oz pasta-water or potato-water)

1 medium tomato chopped fine (I don’t mind the seeds or skin but remove them if you wish)

salt & pepper

Preparation:

Remove pork from marinade and brown in olive oil in a saucier pan large enough for the pork chops to fit without overlapping — remove.

In same pan prepare the sauce. Sauté shallot and scallion in the olive oil, add other ingredients, scraping fond from pan and simmer gently for 15 min. The sauce may need thickening and you may want to tweak amounts of vinegars and tomato sauce. The sauce should be tomatoey but tangy.

Return pork to pan, cover and simmer for an hour, turning occasionally.

The dish goes well with broad noodles. I like bok choy as a side, steamed in a light bath of soy and water with a drop of sesame oil.