Revised Stuffed Pork Chop Recipe

Ingredients:

1 Rib-Cut Pork Chop (preferably 0.75-1in thick)

1 sprig rosemary

1 good braeburn apple

1 tbsp finely-chopped ginger

Several whole Maiitake mushrooms (dried and reconstituted - save the stock)

Several finely-chopped Maiitake mushrooms (dried and reconstituted - save the stock)

Sweet Marsala Wine

1 Shallot

Unsalted Butter

Salt

Pepper

1) Trim the foot off of the chop, coursely chopping and saving the waste. Hollow out the inside using a sharp knife, entering through the area you just cleared.

2) Quarter and core the apple. Peel two quarters and finely chop one.

3) Mix together the apple, chopped mushrooms, and ginger. Add salt and pepper to taste and spoon into the cavity of the chop, pushing down to spread it around.

4) Either sous vide at 130. Remove and pat dry if necessary. Salt and pepper both sides.

5) Heat a thick-bottom pan on very high until smoking. Add butter and chop, flipping every 5-15 seconds until nicely browned. Turn heat down to medium-high and fry the remaining pork left over from step 1. Reserve. Puree the second peeled quarter of the apple. Turn heat down to medium.

6) Finely chop the shallot and cook in the same pan until softened. Add the apple and cook for another minute, then turn heat up to high and deglaze with 1-2 cups Marsala. Reduce 2/3 and add mushroom stock. Reduce until thick, then strain the sauce into another pan and reserve the apple-shallot mixture. Reduce further if necessary.

7) Slice the other half of the apple into thick wedges. Season with salt and pepper, then pan-roast in butter on medium heat (in the same pan if desired).

Serve the chop on top of the apple-shallot mixture, with the extra pork, apples, and sauce on the side.

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Notes for improvement:

1) Look up more stuffing recipes. I cooked the pork loin stuffing before using it; should probably do the same here.

2) Reduce the temperature in the sous vide. This chop was well-done; I want more of a medium-rare. Might be worth stuffing after it's come to temperature, or something.

3) Don't use butter as the cooking fat; it burns at those temperatures and seems to discolor the sauce. Lard will probably work.

This is one of the better things I've made recently, though.