ROTW, Week 2: Pork Chops with Blackberry Port Reduction

I scheduled this post a few days ago.  I was going to pull it, because honestly I don't feel like doing anything now except talk about my dog and how much I'll miss him, but then I reconsidered.  Partly I consider this resolution to be a good one, and partly because I am not really ready to talk about Boris yet.  So here we go:

I should have clarified at the beginning of the year: sometimes, I make new recipes others have written for me.  Sometimes, I just make stuff up.  I think this counts. This week, we stepped it up a notch.

These were surprisingly delightful, given that I don't really love pork chops AND this is an invention.  However, I don't know of too many recipes involving garlic, butter, and red wine that are not at least sort-of tasty.

Here we go:

4-6 pork chops.  Ours were thin cut.
4 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 or 2 shallots, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced (I like everything garlicky.)
1 fresh cayenne pepper, minced (I had one?  So I threw it in.  Did not notice it.)
1/2 cup blackberries (fresh, this is like 10 berries.)
1 cup chicken stock
1/2 cup port wine
1/2 bottle red wine (I used Charles Shaw Merlot.  Ahh Trader Joes and 3 buck Chuck.)
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine butter and oil in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Add shallot, garlic, and cayenne pepper, and cook until lightly browned (and your kitchen smells amazing.)

Add blackberries and cook until you can see the blackberries are going soft, then add port, chicken stock, and red wine.  Heat bring to a simmer, and cook until reduced by half (this could take 20ish minutes.)  Puree sauce using your method of choice (I use my delightful immersion blender, wedding gift of Brandon's aunt and uncle.) At this point, keep it warm until pork chops are cooked.  If the sauce is nice and thick. BE CAREFUL because it will splatter.  This could burn you, and also, blackberries stain.  If it is thin, don't worry, and use this time to let it thicken up.  You can always add more red wine if the sauce is too thick for your taste.

Cook the porkchops.  We grilled them on our new grill pan (thanks Mom and Dad) but you could just as easily pan fry them, or bake them if that's your thing.  Whats important is that after you season them with salt and pepper, cook them until delightfully caramelized on the outside, and put them on your plate, is that you adorn them with this beautiful sauce.

Yum.