Blueberries, Pork, and Sharing

My super fabulous old roommate (Joy) and I like to share recipes, now that we don’t live together anymore. It’s like we’re eating dinner together, except not in the same room.

I opened my email this morning to find the following recipe:

You Need:

boneless pork chops

1 shallot, finely diced

1/2 cup red wine

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 lemon (zest and juice)

2 tablespoons butter

Fresh parsley, roughly chopped

Do This:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F.

2. Salt and pepper both sides of each pork chop. Heat a tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat in an oven-proof skillet big enough to hold all four pork chops.

3. Brown the pork chops, about 1-2 minutes on each side. Remove the pan from heat and pop it into the oven. Remove when the pork is just cooked through, about 10-12 minutes.

4. While the pork chops are in the oven, prepare the sauce. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small saucepan over medium high heat.

5. Sauté the shallots until soft and golden. Add the wine and water and let boil down for 1-2 minutes.

6. Add the blueberries. When the skins begin to burst, add the lemon zest and juice. Let the sauce continue to boil and thicken until the pork chops are ready.

7. Once the pork chops are ready, remove the pan from the oven and place the pork chops on a cutting board and let them rest while finishing the sauce.

8. Turn the heat off under the saucepan and stir in the butter until it is completely melted. If using unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt.

9. Serve the pork chops either whole or sliced, topped with the blueberry sauce and fresh parsley. Since the pork chops were finished in the oven, they should still be nice and juicy.

Pork? Blueberries? Done.

My blueberry-red wine-shallot pork.

Joy’s blueberry-red wine-shallot pork. She had side dishes. And placemats. I think the words for that are Big. Time. Fancy.

Okay, so of course I had side dishes, but I was feeling super minimalist with the photos. That cherry tomato and green bean vinaigrette on her plate looks phenomenal, right?

The sauce is phenomenal. I love everything about it (except for the fact that it steams a lot while it’s reducing, so if you want a decent photo of the sauce midway through, you have to pull the pan off the stove).

Anyways, the moral of the story is that sharing is good. And that this blueberry-red wine-shallot sauce is so good that I’d eat it with a spoon.

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