Category: Meats

Savory Pork Chops with Fennel

In Wisconsin, we tend to think that “invasive species” refers mainly to zebra mussels, Eurasian milfoil and Canada thistle. In California the list might well end with fennel. Driving in California, you will see miles of shrubs that look a bit like dill along the highways. Those bushes are actually fennel, a plant native to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. It has been used by doctors and cooks for thousands of years and was probably brought to California by the people who also brought wine grapes to the state.

Fennel seeds stick to clothing, wagon wheels, car tires, bird feathers and animal hair, and soon feral fennel was thriving. With much of the state enjoying a Mediterranean climate, California seemed like a beautiful new home to the new immigrant families from places like Italy, Spain and Greece. Fennel also found it the ideal place to “be fruitful and multiply.” Today, fennel is a major pest in the Golden State, but it is also one of my favorite herbs.

Fennel has the same flavor as anise, but it has a milder or softer effect in recipes. It is cultivated today around the world. The bulbs, leaves and seeds are all used in cooking. I have tried a couple of recipes with fennel bulbs, but we depend mainly on the seeds.

Jerri and I use them in making marinara and spaghetti sauces and include them in a spice mixture we make for commercial pizzas that we “doll up” with extras like tomatoes, green peppers, onions and mushrooms.

If you like mild Italian sausage, you will enjoy the flavor of these pork chops. They are quick and easy to cook but make a delicious main dish for an elegant dinner.

INGREDIENTS:

4 pork chops, each about 3/4 inch thick
1 large or 2 small cloves garlic
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 tsp. fennel seed
2 T olive oil
3/4 cup dry white wine

PROCEDURE:

Crush the fennel seed with a mortar and pestle and mix with the flour, salt and pepper. Peel and mince the garlic. Put the olive oil in a frying pan over moderate heat.

Dredge the chops in the seasoned flour and fry them until they are a dark golden brown. Sprinkle the minced garlic on them and add the wine. Cover and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.

If the sauce is too thin, raise the heat to moderate and remove the cover for the last few minutes to thicken it.

Serve with a glass of the wine, a salad, bread and rice or pasta.

NOTES: Couscous pilaf goes well with these chops as does a steamed vegetable such as carrots or green beans.

Pörkelt: Pork Goulash with Caraway and Lemon

Our family ate a lot of pork when I was a boy. We feasted on hams for Sunday dinners, and breakfast was bacon, eggs and homemade bread at least a couple of times a week. Mom used smoked pork hocks for making soup, and she made pork pot roasts with vegetables, pork chops smothered in gravy and shoulder roasts done slowly in the oven.

She did not, however, introduce her son to pörkelt. That honor belongs to an anonymous cook in the cafeteria of the dormitory where I lived when I was a student for a year in Germany. The dorm fee included dinner, which was served at noon. At that time in Germany, this was the main meal of the day, and the cafeteria cooks did their best to see that students got enough to fill them up.

Most of the meals were pretty good, but I did learn quickly that if a lot of tables were empty, chances were good that boiled liver over noodles was the main course that day. If students on very limited budgets skip a meal they have paid for, you know that something is wrong.

Pörkelt was one of the most popular dishes. A couple of us would go to the serving window and fetch back bowls of the fragrant meat, steaming noodles and lovely red cabbage. Bread and butter were already on the table. Once everyone was served, someone would say “Greif zu!” and we would do as ordered: “Dig in!”

Pörkelt is actually a kind of Hungarian goulash, a meat stew seasoned with paprika and other spices served with noodles or dumplings. It is made with pork rather than beef and is a mild dish with a delightful taste of lemon and caraway.

There are dozens if not hundreds of recipes for pörkelt. I tinkered with several until I got a version that we really liked. It reminds me of the dish I first had in Germany long ago, and we have been enjoying it for many years. Here’s how to make it.

INGREDIENTS:

3 lbs. pork
3 cups chopped onion
2 T oil
2 T butter
1 tsp. caraway
3 tsp. marjoram
1 lemon rind
2 small or 1 large clove garlic
2 T paprika
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 tsp. salt
1 T flour
1/4 cup water

PROCEDURE

Cut the meat into one-inch cubes, discarding the excess fat. Put the oil and butter into a large heavy pot with a tight-fitting lid. Peel and chop the onions into about a half inch dice, put them into the pot and cook them over low heat until they are soft and translucent. Do not brown them.

Crush the caraway seeds in a mortar or with a wooden spoon in a sturdy cup. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash a lemon and use a grater to remove the zest (the bright yellow outer layer of the rind) from it. Stir the caraway, marjoram, garlic, lemon zest, paprika and salt into the onions. Add the meat and the chicken broth. Add water if necessary to cover the meat.

Simmer the goulash for about 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Mix the flour into the quarter cup of water and add it to the goulash to thicken the gravy slightly. Simmer for another five minutes, then taste and correct the seasoning.

Serve your goulash over noodles with a good crusty bread. If you want to add a vegetable, red cabbage is a good choice.

NOTES: Most paprika sold in U. S. supermarkets is the mild or sweet paprika. This is the kind I use for pörkelt. There are hot paprikas, however, that you can get in some food stores if you prefer a spicier dish.