Pork loin chops with butternut and wine

[geeksoup]

I'm stepping outside the boundaries of Geek Soup again to post something I literally tripped on. It's so good, though, and it would make an excellent holiday-time dish.

It sounds a little odd, even to me; I think of butternut as being creamy and sweet, not complimentary to wine at all, and generally speaking, I don't like sweet with meat. But I bought a butternut squash, and it ended up so big that hubby conconcted a risotto with it in addition to the pork loin dish and finally smearing the other half of the squash with butter, brown sugar and Chinese five-spice powder.

Here's the meat dish. This has turned out wonderfully.

6 pieces thick pork loin chop, "ribeye" style, with as much marbling as you can find, or really any chop could work for this.
about 2 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups cubed butternut
scant teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 cup apple juice
3/4 cup white wine
1/4 cup brown sugar
pepper to taste
1 tbsp dried basil

Salt the chops and brown in oil in a heavy-bottomed pan, about 4-5 minutes per side. Don't stir or shift them around, just let them get a good sear on.

Dump everything else in there, cover. Simmer for about a half hour, then take the lid off to allow the broth to thicken. You will end up with a saucy, sweet-and-sour dish, rich in flavor and color.

Comments

[zillah975]

Eeeeeee, this looks awesome! And simple enough (except for the searing) that I might actually be able to do it. :) Could be good for Thanksgiving.

[hily]

You could do it with a breast of turkey cut into thick, steak-like slices and cooked in the same way.