Bake-n-Bake: Pork Chops with Cognac Cream

Gotta love long weekends. I took Friday off and so was able to cook Friday and Saturday this week. Cooking around here is a long, drawn out affair even when its food that takes 10-15 minutes of preparation. Today I started getting the ingredients ready at about 2:30pm. We didn't eat until 9pm. The problem was, I had about 15 minutes total time between 2:30pm and 8:30pm to cook. The rest of the time was dealing with the twins, including feeding them mashed veggies. At 8:30pm they went down, so I dragged out the vaporizer and got cooking.

Tonight's dinner was pork chops with cognac gravy, mashed potatoes and sauteed silver chard. It was one of the first times I've been able to get back to my normal dinner style since the girls were born. Nice!

Sprinkle the pork chops with salt and marinate in cognac. Brandy is actually better; but, last night when I went to marinade I felt like cognac. Heat some butter and thinly sliced garlic in a pan under high heat. Once the butter starts bubbling nicely sear the pork chops in it. The garlic should get nice and toasty brown in the process. Turn down the heat and pour in a bit of the marinade. Cover and let simmer at low heat for 5-10 minutes, depending on the thickness of the pork chop.

Pork chops in their marinade the night before cooking them.

When the meat is cooked, set it aside in a warmer.

The cream and cognac with caramelized garlic is starting to boil. From this point on you should stir fairly constantly.

The sauce is thickened and now off the burner, still bubbling and giving off a great aroma.

Pour the rest of the marinade into the still hot pan and turn the heat up to very high. Pour in an equal amount of heavy cream and bring to a boil. Once the cream starts boiling you'll need to stir it pretty much constantly. You can walk away occasionally; but, for the most part you're stuck there stirring. You may need to turn the heat down so that the cream doesn't burn. Let the sauce reduce until it is a thick gravy. Pour over the meat and serve.

A rather plain presentation; but, I'm too tired to care.

You should have plenty of gravy for potatoes or pasta.

Updated: Incidentally, this was Bake-n-Bake episode #5 since starting this blog. I need to mark it so that I can remember to count in the future. Hopefully these things will come more frequently now that the girls are growing up a bit. --e