Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney

Saturday did in fact turn out to be a beautiful day with temps reaching 60 degrees, no wind and plenty of bright sunshine! The pups had spring fever and decided they were going to spend the day outside on the deck... Gus loves his shine from the sun, but Max stayed back in the shadows since his fluffy coat keeps him pretty warm already!

We pushed 9 new recipes out from the kitchen this week - looking back, our favorites were those Oatmeal Pancakes With Cider Sauce, the Currant Scones and we couldn't decide on the last one... it was a tie between that Stromboli from Friday night and those Savory Millet Cakes.

When we went to the market this morning, I needed to pick up a few extra apples so I could prepare this Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney dish for dinner tonight.

After peeling the tart Granny Smiths, we diced them fairly small and slipped them into a warm skillet laced with melted butter. After a few minutes, dried cranberries were stirred in, along with rich brown sugar, cider vinegar, potent fresh ginger, dry mustard and just a touch of allspice to highlight the sweet notes.

As we left the chutney to simmer away, we gave lean boneless pork chops a rub down with a mixture composed of chipotle chile powder, garlic, ground coriander and, of course, the obligatory additions of salt and fresh ground black pepper. If you have a grill pan, or have the urge to heat up an outside grill, feel free to do either, but I used our trusty Griddler to cook these chops quickly. When we purchased that a few years ago, I wasn't sure we would get good use out of it, but we use it way more often that I ever thought! Jeff walked by a this point and noted how well the chops smelled, but turned his nose up at the chutney as the vinegar was fairly pungent and noticeable still.

He wasn't too sure even after I took a spoonful of the chutney and asked him to just try it, but eventually he did and I smiled as I watched as his face light up. Sweet, a bit tart and very aromatic with the infusion of fresh ginger, the chutney, with those chewy cranberries, was a nice counterpoint to those savory and juicy chops. The apples were tender, yet not mushy - however, I will say that we did find the amount of chutney to be a bit excessive in comparison to the size of the pork chops. If I were to make this again, I might think about paring down the chutney recipe a tad.

Recipes
Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney