Mr. E and I have been trying to eat all the food in our freezer before we begin to stock up again. As I have mentioned in previous posts we order our meat from our local farm her in town. Luckily we had two pork chops in the freezer that I was able to use as my blank slate on which to create a meal that incorporated my favorite food accompaniments... sundried tomatoes, steamed spinach and creamy goat cheese.
Ingredients
2 pork chops
2 oz goat cheese
1 8 oz box of frozen spinach
1/4 chopped sun dried tomatoes
1 onion
2 T butter
1 T chopped garlic
EVOO
twine
Preparation
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Chop the onion and place in a saute pan with 2 T butter and 1 T chopped garlic. Saute until the onions are soft and translucent.
Cook the frozen spinach in a bowl in the microwave with a few tablespoons of water. After it has finished cooking and cooled a bit.... pour the spinach onto a cheesecloth and wrap the cloth around the spinach and squeeze until all the excess water is removed. Add the onions, sundried tomatoes, and goat cheese to the spinach and mix.
Set the spinach mixture aside and place the two pork chops on a clean cutting board. With a long knife cut horizontally through the two chops so that you create a pocket inside the chop. Once the pocket is as big as you can make it without cutting open teh sides of the chop, stuff the spinach mixture into the pork chop. Take a long piece of twine and wrap it around each chop and tie it off so that it keeps the stuffing inside the chop.
Heat a skillet on medium heat on the stovetop with 1 T of EVOO. Brown the pork chops in the EVOO for about 8 minutes total (4 minutes on each side). Transfer the pork chops to a clear glass pan side-by-side and place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the internal temperature reaches 135 degrees with a meat thermometer. Once you have reached that temperature, remove the pork from the oven and tent the chops with a aluminum foil and continue to let them cook until the internal temperature reaches 160 degrees (or less if you like your chops more on the pink side). If there is any additional spinach stuffing serve on top of the chop. SO yummy!
Recipe from Bon Appetit Magazine, January 2009
Posts
