Sweet and Savory Pork Chops

The local co-op grocery had a special on organic smoked pork chops, 4.50/lb, so I had to grab a few and invent a new recipe. When I got home my roommate pointed out the surplus of vermouth we had in a cabinet so naturally I decided to use it for sauce. The apple I used is a honeycrisp apple. These apples are remarkable. They are huge, crisp, tart, and sweet. The ones I got are like oversized braeburns.

Here is the recipe I put together.

2 smoked pork chops
1 apple

1 red onion
2 yams
2 garlic bulbs
1 cup of vermouth
1 cup of dark ale

brown sugar

flour

Cut the yam and onion into 3/4 to 1 inch slabs. Cut the tops off of the garlic. This may seem like a lot of garlic but it mellows out after cooking and you'll wish you had more. Section apple into wedges. Space these ingredients in a casserole dish with the pork chops. Take a small amount of the dark ale and mix with 1 tbs of flour, then combine with the rest of the ale and vermouth. Pour this on top of all the ingredients.

Cook in oven at 350 for 1/2 hour covered with aluminum foil. Then another 1/2 hour uncovered. Then 5-10 minutes in the broiler after coating the chops with brown sugar.

Serve with marinated onions on top of the chops. This recipe was given to me by Mom, great to have around for anything savory. I used apple cider vinegar which is especially suited for this recipe.

2 med red onions
4 cups of boiling water

Marinade:
1/2 cup cider vinegar or unseasoned rice vinegar
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp honey or sugar
1/2 to 1 tsp of salt
1 tsp of peppercorn
1/2 of whole cloves

1 quart mason jar

Peel onions slice as thin as you can, transfer to medium sized bowl. Pour boiling water into bowl, soak for 5 minutes. Strain with a colander. Combine marinade ingredients while onions are draining. Stir in onions sit in marinade 10 minutes. Put into a jar, tighten the lid, and place in the fridge. You may have to put more water and vinegar to cover the onions in the jar, just be sure to keep the ratio even.

Hiller Park in McKinleyville

Click on photos to view large

Today I biked over to Hiller Park to check out the Mad river estuary. The ride over on the Coastal Bike Trail is a great scenic route which passes a number of cow pastures complete with bird flocks and dilapidated barns. The sun was shining through a light cloud cover and it was very pleasant out. Once I got down where the river meets the ocean I got to see a pair of seals cruising down the current of the river. It was great to see them effortlessly get pulled through the eddies and bends of the river; it looked really fun. I am gonna have to do that once I get a wetsuit. Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of them, they had already passed me while my eye was occupied in the viewfinder; sometimes having a camera keeps you from seeing the great things right in front of you!

The sand bank of the river on the beach undergoes a constant process of being built up and destroyed with the rise and fall of the tide. While you walk along its side there is always chunks of the bank edge falling into the current. There is also a wall that is around 5 ft tall created by the last flooding of the river.

In this picture below; taken right at the last bend of river before it empties into the ocean, you can see a number of tree stumps scattered about. This phenomenon is called a "ghost forest". It occurs when a subduction zone earthquake causes the ground to suddenly drop several feet. This causes the roots of the trees near the ocean to be exposed to salt water killing them off.

After enjoying the estuary and walking around a bit I started back up a trail that headed towards McKinleyville. This is where I found a few mushrooms scattered about. I have yet to look up this one, it is so young and small it maybe pretty hard to identify. I'll post more info if I figure it out. The was a large grove of coastal oak and all the trunks and limbs were covered in spanish moss. Spanish moss (Ramalina menziesi) is actually a lichen (a symbiotic organism composed of fungi and algae), and this species in particular is very important to sulfur cycling and removes a considerable amount from our atmosphere.

Thats it for now, check back next week!