Pork Chops in a White Wine Mustard Sauce, Cheesy Polenta, & Pancetta Wrapped Dates

July 30, 2012

Pork Chops in a White Wine Mustard Sauce, Cheesy Polenta, & Pancetta Wrapped Dates

Boneless Pork Chops w/ White Wine and Mustard Sauce

Cheesy Polenta with Broccolini

Pancetta Wrapped Dates, Stuffed with Blanched Almonds

I went home this past weekend, with the intention of cooking a nice meal on Saturday night. My mom isn’t home much in her house in Sacramento, and so I didn’t know what kinds of spices and ingredients I would be working with. A few things were guaranteed though, and that was the fact that there would definitely be a bottle of white wine in the fridge, and there would definitely be garlic cloves around. I just recently went to a very delicious Tapas Bar up the street from me in San Francisco, called Zarzuela, and had tried their pancetta wrapped dates. They were surprisingly delicious, even though I have never been a big fan of dates before. I guess I never really gave them a chance in my most recent cooking years (not only because they look and feel like really realllly old peoples), so I was pleased when I found them to be so good. The restaurant dates were out of this world- our reaction upon tasting them was self-explanatory, as smiles immediately crept upon our faces. These dates were covered in some kind of fruit glaze, and semi burnt, but they were seriously unlike anything I’ve ever tasted. They were rich, but because they came only in threes, it was a perfect taste.

I was at my local produce shop downstairs from me recently, and saw that the woman who works there had a box of dates next to her. They were $5 a pound, so I got a pound, which turned out to be about 12 large dates. When I got home to check them out, I realized that the skin was a bizarre, waxy type consistency, but they weren’t sticky, as I had always imagined them to be. They also had a small pit inside of them, which made it perfect for me to remove, and then replace with a blanched almond (skinless almond). I saw a lot of recipes online saying to add either goat cheese or blue cheese, but I decided since it was my first time attempting this recipe, I would keep it fairly simple.

I’m not going to lie; I called Zarzuela to ask them what kind of glaze they had on top of their dates. The man who answered the phone explained to me that as much as he could tell me the ingredients, the process was “quite complicated”. But now I knew that the recipe consisted of a demi-glaze, pomegranate juice, and a few other items. I had already been to the store, assuming fig jam would suffice, so I didn’t have any pomegranate juice in my recipe. Instead, I mixed fig jam and a little red wine and dipped the pancetta wrapped dates in that instead. Next time, I know that I will have to reduce my jam and wine beforehand (to make a glaze), and then smother the dates in the sauce before I bake them. I also would cut my dates in half next time, just because the date flavor and texture was a little overwhelming, and having the ingredients doubled per date, i.e. if each half date would have an almond and a piece of pancetta, would be best.

I also was set upon trying this cheesy polenta I had had in the Grand Canyon, while camping. Polenta is really easy to make (boil water, add polenta, reduce to a simmer and stir for roughly 20 minutes), but can also go from being perfectly cooked to overdone in a fairly short amount of time. What I have learned is that polenta just needs to be served immediately after being made. I used to use Trader Joe’s polenta tubes, but after taking a cooking class in NYC last winter and hearing the chef talk about how he would never in his life use tube polenta that sits in plastic, I have veered towards the loose kind.

I went to the store knowing I would be buying polenta, cheddar, and pancetta. I already had dates, and didn’t know I would be making pork yet. I couldn’t think of what to do for the main dish. I decided on pork, because the pancetta dates and cheesy polenta are so rich and heavy. I didn’t know how I would make the chops yet, but decided I could figure it out later at home. We had snagged some Beaver Brand Sweet and Hot Mustard (from Beaverton, OR) at the local store down my street in Sacramento, because Riley had been hankering for it since the Grand Canyon and it was finally spotted at Taylor’s Market. I have seriously searched everywhere.

I normally hate mustard, but with this specific brand, I felt okay about venturing into the yellow world for once (Nicole & Em, you would be so proud). I pulled some white wine out of the fridge, cut up a couple cloves of garlic, and added a few squeezes of mustard into a large bowl. After mixing, it turned out to be a fairly mild, but deliciously smelling sauce I would marinate the pork in. After searing and then baking the pork at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, the pork came out smelling and tasting like the best pork chops I have made as of yet! So pleased with myself, I got to enjoy a yummy, and not so hard-to-make meal.

Boneless Pork Chops in a White Wine Mustard Sauce

Ingredients:

3-4 boneless pork chops

2 tablespoons spicy, or sweet and hot mustard (of your choice, of course)

1 cup dry white wine (I used some Cupcake Chardonnay I had in the fridge)

4 cloves garlic, diced

4 tablespoons olive oil

1 pinch coarse sea salt

Directions:

1. Mix wine, mustard, and garlic in a medium sized bowl, and marinate in the refrigerator for 30 minutes

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

3. Heat a medium-large sized skillet, over medium-high heat, and add 2 tablespoons olive oil. Then sprinkle some coarse sea salt into the pan, to help the pork sear better and retain its juices

4. Sear each side of pork, roughly 2-4 minutes, depending on your stove

5. Add remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and pork to a baking dish. Pour over any leftover sauce you may have. Bake for about 10 minutes, or until the chops are done to your liking- you risk making them too dry if you cook them for too long, so just keep checking every few minutes if you aren’t sure.

Cheesy Polenta with Broccolini (a relative of broccoli, but it has thinner stalks-you’ve probably seen these creatures somewhere in a grocery store before)

Ingredients:

1 cup loose polenta

4 cups water (1:4 is the ratio of polenta to water)

1 cup cheddar, shredded

1 bunch of broccolini

1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Boil 4 cups water over high heat, while adding 1 teaspoon salt

2. Reduce water to a simmer, and slowly add polenta, stirring constantly

3. Stir consistently until there is no longer any water, but only the cooked polenta in the pot (15-25 minutes, depending on your stove)

4. Steam broccolini over boiling water, in either a double boiler, or if you're kinda kitchen lacking like me, just put it in a strainer and place the strainer above the boiling water...just make sure the vegetables aren't submerged at all

5. Add shredded cheddar to polenta, and serve immediately

6. Top with cooked broccolini

Pancetta Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Blanched Almonds

Ingredients:

8 large dates

8-16 pieces of pancetta (wrap either one or two layers, depending on how meat crazy you are)

16 blanched almonds (can be found in any Whole Foods or specialty store. Otherwise, follow my blanching directions- place almonds in boiling water for about 2 minutes, then transfer to a bowl of ice water-then remove almonds and dry)

4 tablespoons fig jam

4 tablespoons red wine

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees

2. Cut dates in half. Then cut open dates, removing the pit, and replacing with a blanched almond

3. Using one piece at a time, wrap each date and almond in a piece of pancetta
4. Dip your wrapped dates in the fig jam and wine mixture, and coat well