blue artichoke

I don't make French food very often any more, so I decided to revisit one of my favorite recipes for this week's Wandering Gullet. My chef training was in French food; this is a very familiar "genre" and a natural choice for dinner on a busy day. I made Côtes de Porc Charcutière avec Pommes Purée, which sounds really fancy but really means pork chops with a charcutière sauce and mashed potatoes. I had some faux thickened brown veal stock in the freezer from the last time I made a fancy French sauce. While the stock doesn't actually use veal bones, the substitution of canned chicken and beef broth with tomato paste and wine actually makes a stock with a very similar flavor (and is much, much easier!).

The recipes:

Côtes de Porc Charcutière avec Pommes Purée
Pork Chops with a Charcutière Sauce and Mashed Potatoes

Practical Kitchen Work: The Basic Arts of Cooking by Michael Maincent
All measurements are in metric. Sorry about that, but not sorry enough to convert it for you. Just guess and taste, it'll turn out fine. I take lots of short cuts with this recipe. I substitute pickle relish for the julienned gherkins; I don't strain the sauce. Sometimes I just mash the potatoes with a potato masher or a fork instead of dirtying up my vegetable mill (though they really are better when passed through the mill). I sort of used a bain-marie to keep the potatoes warm. I boiled peas, and set the pot of potatoes on top of the pea pot, which kept the potatoes warm and helped the peas cook faster. I also served baby carrots.

8 (7 oz. Each) pork chops
40 g. butter
40 mL oil
Sauce:
80 g. onions
200 mL white wine
400 mL thickened brown veal stock
20 g. mustard
40 g. butter
80 g. gherkins, pickled
Garnish:
2 kg potatoes
800 mL milk
40 g. butter
S/p, nutmeg, to taste

Trim excess fat from chops; flatten slightly.

Peel, wash and cut potatoes into large quarters; rinse again. Set to cook in cold water. Salt with coarse sea salt, skimming if necessary; cook covered with a lid for 25-30m, over low heat.

Peel, wash and finely chop the onions. Slice and cut the gherkins into fine julienne.

Set the milk to boil. Check that the potatoes are cooked; drain. Pass quickly through a vegetable mill and return potatoes to the cooking pan, working it with a wooden spoon over low heat to dry a bit. Add the butter in small knobs and gradually work in the boiling milk unlit required consistency is reached. Check seasoning. Spread a bit of milk and small knobs of butter over top and keep potatoes hot in a bain-marie.

Salt and pepper the chops and sauté in butter and a little oil. Cook gently for 5-6m/side; transfer to a dish fitted with a grill or trivet. Keep in a hot place until ready to serve.

Drain fat from the pork pan. Add chopped onions; sweat. Deglaze with white wine; reduce. Add veal stock and finish the cooking of the sauce over a low heat for a few minutes. Add the mustard off the heat (don’t boil); strain. Add gherkins and beat in some small knobs of butter off the heat. Check seasoning. Serve sauce with chops and potatoes on the side.

Serves 8.

“Veal” Stock Substitute

Cook’s Illustrated, May/June 2004

2 T. veggie oil
4 t. tomato paste
2 small onions, chopped medium
1 med carrot, chopped medium
4 med garlic cloves, peeled
¼ c. water
3 t. flour
1 ½ c. dry red wine
3-½ c. low-sodium beef broth
1-¾ c. low-sodium chicken broth
2 t. black peppercorns
8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves

Heat oil and tomato paste in Dutch oven over med-high heat; cook, stirring constantly, until paste begins to brown, ~3m. Add onions, carrot and garlic; cook, stirring frequently, until mixture is reddish brown, ~2m. Add 2 T. water and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is well browned, ~3m, adding remaining water when needed to prevent scorching. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, 1m. Add wine and, using a heatproof rubber spatula, scrape up browned bits on bottom and sides of pot; bring to boil, stirring occasionally (mixture will thicken slightly). Add broths, peppercorns, thyme and bay; bring to boil and cook, uncovered, occasionally scraping bottom and sides of pot with spatula, until reduced to 2-½ c., 35-40m.

Strain mixture through fine-mesh strainer, pressing on solids to extract as much liquid as possible; you should have ~1 ¼ c.

Sunday was a busy day because Saturday was our Halloween party. The party started around 8pm and ended at 5am Sunday morning (that was before we changed our clocks). That's 9 hours of partying! I decorated the house with mice, rats, spiders and bats. We even had a real spider climbing the wall above the buffet table, for added authenticity. On the buffet table we had buckeyes (big hit), pumpkin gingerbread (surprise hit), terror trail mix, pumpkin cheeseball (only shaped like a pumpkin, not pumpkin flavored) with apples and crackers, devil's black bean salsa with tortilla chips, and eyeball cupcakes. Guests included Miss Cleo (tv psychic), Velma from Scooby-Doo, Raoul Duke from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, trashy tourists, a skeleton, a ninja, a Catholic priest and a monk, Andrew W.K. and Pete & Repeat. As usual, the party ended up in a late-night poker game. The skeleton and the ninja split the pot.