My First Chutney

I had a leftover pork chop calling me from the freezer so I decided to browse through my recipes and the March 2009 issue of Cooking Light actually featured many mouth watering choices.  I chose this one because I've always wanted to make a chutney ("A pungent relish made of fruits, spices, and herbs") and because I'd get to use my new grill pan.

Spiced Pork Chops with Apple Chutney

I followed this recipe pretty closely, except for the fact that I made a single serving.  So I cut the chutney ingredients to a third of the original but wish I would've done more like half because it wasn't quite enough to have a bite of chutney with every bite of pork chop.  I still mixed together the same amount of spices for the chop and really coated it with the rub instead of just sprinkling.  Wow was it spicy but delicious!  The guy at Cub helped me locate the more obscure spices and almost $10 later I'm the proud owner of ground chipotle chile pepper and ground coriander (I have coriander seeds but no way to grind them).  Definitely worth it...I'm going to start searching for more ways to use the chiptole pepper as soon as I'm done with this.  Next time I'll probably cut back on the spice just a bit and make a different side dish; the green beans didn't really do anything for me.

The Quick & Dirty

Changes:

• Made one serving but didn't adjust everything accordingly, result was a very spicy chop and not enough chutney
• Used bottled minced ginger instead of messing with the stuff myself

Yumminess:

• A bite of spicy, juicy pork chop with a bite of sweet chutney...simply amazing
• Homemade vanilla bean ice cream to help with the heat...perfect dessert
• Only prep work is chopping up the apple and combining all the spices.....simply simple

Sadness:

• May have been a bit too spicy
• Pork probably could've used a little bit longer on the grill
• Made the side dish with fresh string beans instead of haricots verts, were still very crispy and didn't really have any special flavor