The Loin in Winter

Pork Loin Chops, Mashed Potatoes and Cabbage

Maybe it’s spring somewhere, but up here in the Finger Lakes it’s winter. The ground surface is grudgingly thawing beneath the weak, occasional rays of sun, but there are still ugly lumps of vestigial snow about and the earth is hard. We have a cluster of 8 purple crocuses hanging on like the Donner Party. If nothing happens soon they’ll start eating each other. Last year at this time of course I was cutting the first asparagus. This feels more normal. Yes it’s winter still. Having had no taste of spring, we don’t really know what we’re missing. So a meal of slow baked pork loin chops, mashed potatoes and braised cabbage seemed just the thing on Sunday. I had a little under five pounds of chops, 6 chops in all, bone in. I went to Marcella Hazan for guidance. Her book More Classic Italian Cooking has several pork chop recipes. One problem is that she is of the old school, and cooks even pork loin for a long time. Low temperatures are essential, but long cooking times for pork loin can result in a tough, dry piece of meat. But I was craving the soft texture of slowly braised pork. So I decided to go for it. Her recipe also called for cooking them on top of the stove, for tomato paste dissolved in Marsala and Barbera wines. The chops would not fit into my two iron frying pans. And I had no Marsala wine. So this recipe was inspired by Hazan, but changed in essential ways. I used white vermouth and braised them in the oven at 325 degrees. They were tender, moist and delicious! The mashed potatoes, as always with me, are dairy-free. I don’t do dairy. All of my cooking is with oil and without cheese. Cabbaged braised with garlic and vinegar, also out of Hazan, again significantly altered, was the perfect vegetable. The cabbage cooks over low heat for a long time with just a little vinegar for liquid. I had two small savoy cabbages from our winter CSA with Blue Heron Farm. The potatoes and garlic came from them as well. It’s been a great year for a winter CSA. We’ve had kale, cabbage, bok choi and Napa cabbage and more recently, arugula and lettuce. Soon, maybe, spring will peep out from behind the iron clouds, brush the snowflakes from her cheeks and spread across the land in a blush of green. Then we will grill lamb and roast parsnips and make a small salad of radishes and lettuce.

Pork Chops Braised with Wine, Tomato and Fennel Seeds

4 pork chops, bone-in, about 3/4-1” thick

1 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper

¼ chopped garlic

1 cup red wine

1 cup Marsala, sherry, port or white vermouth (I used white vermouth)

2 cups diced or crushed tomatoes

¼ t fennel seeds

Make sure the chops are dry. Season with salt and pepper. Heat ¼ cup of olive oil over medium heat in an iron skilled, dredge the chops in the seasoned flour, and brown them on both sides, in batches if necessary. Add the garlic and fry until golden with a good pinch of salt and some ground pepper, turn up the heat to high and add the wines, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, add the fennel. Now, put the chops in a baking dish that will hold them in a single layer, pour the sauce over, tuck them in nicely, and cover. Bake at 325, turning occasionally, for 1 hour. Towards the end you can remove the lid. When the chops are done, put them on a platter and reduce the sauce to serve.

Boil enough potatoes for however many people you are serving. It all depends on what kind of potatoes you have, and how hungry your people are. I cut them up, cover with water, add 2 teaspoons of salt and 3 whole garlic cloves and boil gently until soft. Drain but reserve about 1 cup of the water. Put the potatoes back in the pot, add a few tablespoons or more of olive oil and mash. Add water a little at a time until you have the consistency you want.

For the cabbage: thinly slice any kind of cabbage. I had about 6 cups, or a bowl full, enough to feed a typical collection of 5 American humans: 30-40% will be vegetable eaters. The rest disdain green. Sauté 3-4T of chopped garlic in ¼ cup olive oil over medium heat. Turn up the flame, add the cabbage and toss and turn in the oil with a pinch of salt and a few grind of pepper. Add 2-3 T of vinegar. Cover tightly and lower the flame to the barest simmer and cook for 45 minutes. Check from time to time. If it’s too dry add just a bit of water. It’s not terrible if the cabbage fries a little and browns. I’ve done this with pancetta, with bacon, with onion. I’ve done it with mustard and cumin seed. It’s a great way to cook cabbage, which takes to sour like ducks to bread.

This is the kind of meal where everything gets smooshed together on the plate! It’s glorious. Serve with an episode of Dr. Who and lots of wine.