You take them where you find them: carmelized pork chops

You never know when you're going to get an inspiration for a recipe, or where. You may have had a few more adult beverages than absolutely necessary (and my readers will recognize that yes, there are times when adult beverages are NECESSARY), and a crazy idea comes to your head that turns out to be quite fine. Or, you'll see a billboard with a meal displayed on it (and someone explain to me why, in every billboard ad where a man and woman are eating together, HE's always having red meat and red wine, and SHE's always having chicken or fish and white wine? And where are the PC police on this one?). Or, as happened here, you will be reading a catalog, magazine, or something, and BAM. It comes to you.

Several evenings ago, I was planning on pork chops. In a "local stretch" for Annalena, I had come into some Becker Farms pork chops. These are usually available only to restaurants, but one of Annalena's fancy grocery sites had them available, so I tried them (good, but not good enough to justify not buying local. My bad). How was I going to cook them? I really had nothing much in mind, other than pan frying them, and putting some heirloom tomato jam on the side. And that would have been just fine.

Except.... the Williams Sonoma catalog was in front of me. As I leafed through their overpriced serving ware and glasses, there was a recipe for glazed pork chops, which was designed, I guess, to show off one of their new pans. I was not so interested in the pan, but pork chops... Hmmmm. And as I read through the ingredients: honey, thyme, balsamic vinegar, chicken stock, it became rather clear that yes, this was how dinner was going to go. And it did, and it was terrific.

A few words of warning/advice here, ragazzi. You are going to be working with very hot sweets, which burn. And stick. So be careful. And USE A NONSTICK PAN. The recipe called for four, one pound pork chops. Uh, the days of Annalena eating a one pound pork chop are long gone, although the Beckers I had weighed in at about 12 ounces. Seriously, a one pound chop is a BIG chop. You can use smaller ones. And keep in mind that, notwithstanding the pretty pictures you will see, getting four chops into a pan is not easy. You need a big one. And if you don't have a non-stick big enough for four , do this in two steps, as explained below. I did it with two.

Get your ingredients together: you need 2-3 healthy tablespoons of honey. You also need half a cup, EACH, of balsamic vinegar, and chicken stock. Now, the recipe called for sequential addition of these materials, which I found to be an absolutely ridiculous thing to do. So combine all of them in a large measuring cup and stir. Stir again. And stir a third time. It is difficult to dissolve honey in this mixture, but do it. And now put it aside.

Get a tablespoon (all you need, for each pair of chops) of olive oil very hot, in that nonstick pan. Add your chops, which.... you guessed it. You salted and let sit overnight, and sear them well. It's going to take a good three or four minutes per side, so plan accordingly. After you've browned all the chops, keeping them warm as you do them in pairs, get rid of the fat and add the liquid.

Remember how I stressed stirring the honey? It still blobbed out, didn't it? Think of what it would be like if you hadn't. So, stir it up again, lower the heat, and cook the liquid to the point where it is reduced by half. Add your chops, and cook them for three minutes per side. Now, bravely reduce that liquid again, to the point where you're getting a very thick, bubbly, almost caramel. Watch this carefully, because this will burn very easily. When it's reduced to about 1/4 of your original volume, put in the chops and turn them again and again, at 30 second intervals. You will see color take to the chops, as the sweet sauce sticks to them. After 3-4 turns to each side, you're done. If you have any left over reduction, pour it over the chops. You won't have much. But you worked on this, and you should use it. It's good.

One final note on this one: this is best done with a higher quality balsamic vinegar than you would normally use. For heaven's sakes, don't use the 100 year old stuff, but get a good bottle, and use that. And taste it. You'll be glad you did spend some money.