Pork Loin/Chops with Cranberry Sauce

Holy crap, this recipe was delicious. And easy.  Meghan and I made this last week and then I made it again by myself a few days later.  I'm thinking it'll be a good recipe to make, yet again, for my mom's birthday this weekend.

The original recipe from Gourmet magazine tells you to make the pork chops with red swiss chard, but I'm going to focus on the pork chops with cranberry sauce here and let you decide what you'd like to make to go along with it.  Meghan and I used sauteed spinach with garlic instead, so it's pretty flexible. We also used pork loin instead of pork chops, and I think this was a good decision. I used pork chops the next time and there was way too much fat on it.

The recipe is for 4 servings, but if you're only cooking for 2, leave the sauce proportions as is because you'll have just enough sauce.  If you are cooking for 4, I'd suggest doubling the sauce.  The soury/sweetness of the cranberry sauce is so so good, you'll want more of it.

Ingredients

Pork (Loin or Chops)

4 (1 1/4 inch thick) pork loin pieces or pork chops
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Cranberry Sauce:

1 cup fresh cranberries
1/3 cup minced shallots (about 2 medium-large shallots)
1/2 cup dry red wine
3/4 chicken stock or broth
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh thyme
2 tablespoons butter

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pat pork loin pieces dry and season with salt and pepper.

2. Heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat until hot, but not smoking.  Brown pork in the pan, about 3-4 minutes per side.

3. Transfer pork to an oven safe dish (leave the remaining fat in the skillet) and roast in oven for about 9-12 minutes. 

4. Meanwhile, to make the sauce: Saute shallots in the skillet with the pork fat until golden brown.  Add wine, stirring it in with the shallots, and boil until the mixture is reduced by half.  Add the cranberries and stock and simmer, stirring occasionally, until the cranberries begin to burst (about 3-4 minutes, they will pop and look like they are split on one side). Stir in brown sugar and thyme and simmer until the cranberries all collapse.  Remove from heat and stir in butter until incorporated and season with salt and pepper.


These are the pork loins (from Eataly!) we used when Meghan and I made it:

The next time, I bought pork chops from The Meat Hook.  Their store is amazing, but this piece had too much fat on it for my taste. I probably should have asked for pork loin, but I didn't see any, and the original recipe does call for pork chops. It still worked, there was just less of it that I wanted to bite into.  

Simmering cranberries:

The second time around, I accidentally bought white wine instead of red.  It definitely still worked, but the red wine had given it a little more oomph and color.