So Friday night I just finished catching up on this week’s episode of Top Chef featuring Guest Judge Charlie Palmer. This episode was all about pork! Pigs & Pinot actually. Charlie Palmer hosts an annual event called Pigs & Pinot which brings together tasty bites of pork paired with Pinot Noirs from around the world. It was a wonderful episode and happy to say that fellow pork lover, Kevin, won this week’s challenge and has been asked to be a guest chef at next year’s Pigs & Pinot event to be held at the Hotel Headlsberg in California’s Wine Country in Sonoma. The event will be March 19 & 20, 2010.

The following Sunday I was catching up on my Saturday morning Food Network shows and caught an episode of Ask Aida where she cooked up a thick pork chop stuffed with sautéed mushrooms and served over polenta.  Well that afternoon I set out to get my ingredients for I was totally swimming in pig fat at this point! Oink!

So let’s call it a late lunch. I made a stuffed bone-in pork chop that was stuffed with mushrooms. Instead of polenta, I opted for risotto with mushrooms. The recipe is below but I opted not to make a sauce as I didn’t have any Vermouth handy. The pork chop was moist on its own, thank the pig lords!

Ingredients

• 2 (1-inch thick) bone-in pork chops (14 ounces each)
• 2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for coating pork chops
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium shallots, thinly sliced
• 5 ounces cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves
• 1/2 cup white vermouth
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter

Directions

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F and arrange a rack in upper third.

Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels and put on a cutting board. Using a small paring knife, cut a 2-inch opening horizontal to the cutting board, halfway up the meat in each chop. Move the knife back and forth in a fan motion to open the interior of the pocket without significantly widening the opening. (You don’t want to pierce through the meat but simply create a pocket for the stuffing.) Brush the exterior of the chops with oil, season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste, and set aside until the stuffing is ready.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large ovenproof frying pan over medium-high heat. When the oil shimmers, add the shallots and cook until softened. Add the mushrooms, season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, and cook, stirring rarely, until browned, about 10 minutes. Stir in the parsley and remove to a plate to cool slightly. Wipe out the frying pan and return it to the stove over medium-high heat. Taste the stuffing and adjust the seasoning, as necessary. Stuff half of the mushroom mixture into the pocket of each chop. If the filling is falling out, secure the chops closed with toothpicks.

Add the remaining 1 tablespoon oil to the pan over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, arrange the stuffed chops in the pan and cook until browned, about 4 minutes. Flip the chops to the other side and transfer the pan to the oven. Bake until the pork is cooked and an instant-read thermometer, inserted into the center of the chops, registers 160 degrees F, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and set the pork aside on serving plates to rest.

For the risotto, it was your basic risotto with mushrooms. Yeah, I know…I probably went a bit overboard with mushrooms in the pork chop, but I like mushrooms..so I went with it! I don’t follow a recipe for risotto as I have been making it for years, but for those that need one, here is one from Fine Cooking magazine:

Ingredients

• 3 cups homemade or low-salt chicken broth; more if needed
• 1 oz. dried porcini soaked for 30 minutes in 1 cup warm water; mushrooms chopped, soaking liquid strained and reserved
• 4 Tbs. butter
• 3/4 cup arborio rice
• 2 cups assorted fresh wild mushrooms, cleaned, trimmed, and coarsely chopped
• 2/3 cup dry white wine
• Kosher salt to taste
• 1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 2 Tbs. freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

Directions

Heat the chicken broth along with the reserved strained porcini soaking liquid; lower the heat to a simmer. In a medium, heavy-gauge saucepan over medium-high heat, melt 2 Tbs. of the butter. Stir in the rice, toasting just until it starts to sizzle and pop, about 1 minute. It should not color. Stir the porcini and the fresh mushrooms into the rice. Stir in the wine.

When almost all the liquid has disappeared, after about 2 minutes, add just enough hot broth to cover the rice. Lower the heat to maintain a vigorous simmer; stir occasionally. When the broth is almost gone, add enough to cover the rice, along with a pinch of salt. Check on the risotto every 3 or 4 minutes, giving it an occasional stir to make sure it isn’t sticking to the bottom of the pan and adding just enough broth to cover the rice when the liquid has almost disappeared.

Continue this way until the rice is just al dente, about 20 minutes total cooking time. Bite into a grain; you should see a white pin-dot in the center. Take the risotto off the heat. Add the remaining 2 Tbs. butter; stir vigorously for a few seconds. Add the parsley, cheese, and more salt, if needed. The risotto should be moist and creamy, not runny. Stir in more broth to loosen the risotto, if you like. Serve immediately.

I purchased a bottle of 2008 Caretaker Pinot Noir from a vineyard in Santa Barbara. It went well with the Pork Chop and Risotto. I’m not a wine expert by any means, but I was hoping for something a bit more fruity. Regardless, I had two glasses of it with my meal and I was a happy pig!