Pork Chops with Balsamic Cherry Preserves

I was looking around the kitchen, trying to decide what I wanted to make for dinner tonight, and my eye rested on the pork chops that I had bought ... beautiful, thick-cut pork chops. I had wanted to grill them and then make a sauce to pour on top. Usually I'd make a mustard-blue cheese sauce or another creamy sauce during the winter, but I wasn't really in the mood for that so I went down to the pantry shelf where I keep all my jars of preserves that I make during the summer and fall harvest.

I had made a small batch, about 4 half-pints, of a Balsamic Cherry Preserves (and I had never really known exactly where I would use it) but today I thought ... well, pork and apples go well together, pork and other fruits go well together, why not pork and balsamic cherry preserves? I just heated the canned Balsamic Cherry preserves in a small saucepan on the stovetop until it was heated through. It gets more liquid as it heats, but if you wanted, you could add a splash of white wine to thin it out to a thinner sauce-like consistency.When the pork chops were done, I just poured the sauce over top.

IT WAS DELICIOUS!! Definitely how I will be using the other jars. And I wanted to share the recipe for the Balsamic Cherry Preserves. I made this recipe last summer when our Cherry tree was abundant, we were overflowing with cherries, and I didn't want to use ALL of them to make jam. This sauce is something I would absolutely make again. The mix of dark, sweet cherries and a tart, tangy balsamic vinegar is almost decadent. This is nice as a sauce for Pork or other savoury dishes (Roast Beef comes to mind), but would also be really nice spread on buttered toast (or maybe even over ice cream or yogurt).

Balsamic Cherry Preserves

Ingredients:

8 Cups             Sweet Cherries, stemmed and pitted and quartered/halved

1/4 Cup           Water

1 Cup              Sugar

1/4 Cup           Balsamic Vinegar

2 pinches         Salt

 

Directions:

In a medium nonreactive saucepan, combine the cherries and a splash of water. Bring to a boil, stirring and crushing the cherries with the back of your spoon. This breaks the fruit up and releases juices.

Once boiling, add the sugar, vinegar and salt. Decrease the heat slightly and cook at what I'd consider a medium boil - not going crazy, but more than a simmer. Frequently stir and crush the cherries. Cook for 20 minutes.

Turn off the heat and let your pot sit for five minutes. Skim off any foam, and stir one final time.

Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, leaving 1/4" headspace.

Process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes, or refrigerate.

Notes:

These preserves are a bit looser than a classic jam. Cherries are low pectin fruits so unless you were to add pectin, it’s a more syrupy kind of final product.

Variations:
Try it with a vanilla bean cooked with the cherries. Also try using a stick of cinnamon or some finely grated orange zest.

Well, I sheepishly realize that I haven't posted in a while ... it was not my greatest summer. Between the weather, which made gardening difficult and tomatoes nigh on impossible, and the weeding (the only thing that grew without problems in the garden this year were the multitudes of weeds), I was kept very busy. With a non-spray garden, weeding is taking up more and more time every year, especially thistles and the dandelions which blow in from everywhere. I weed a patch, move on to another, and by the time I finish the second (a day or so later), the first is full of weeds again. A never-ending process, or at least it was this past summer.

The flower garden looked a little ragged by the end of the year, as I concentrated more of my efforts on the vegetables patches, but aside from the tomatoes which were poor due to the crazy summer weather we had, I ended up with a pretty good harvest.

The beans, especially were quite productive, so we were kept in shelling beans for the second half of the summer, and lots of dried beans to save for the winter months. The squash was INCREDIBLY productive this year, even more so than usual. I completely ran out of interesting recipes for squash and had to google some. I'll post a couple at some point, as I'm sure they will be quite helpful for other people who end up with too many squash all within the space of several weeks. I will be planning for fewer squash plants next year.

I just ordered my seed potatoes for next summer. I was disappointed this past year, as we got record amounts of rainfall within a couple weeks in early summer, and one entire batch of potatoes drowned. Not only died, but actually drowned. The garden couldn't drain fast enough because there was just so much water. Flooding everywhere, cities and streets, and in my potato patch as well. I'm hoping optimistically more less rain this year, a more normal amount at least, and am trying two new varieties. Last year I grew Irish Cobbler (which tastes great, keeps really well, and is fairly productive - good for mashed potatoes) and Seglinde (beautiful potato, lovely taste, thin skin - great for roasting whole, or quartering for soups, casseroles, because you don't need to peel it). I liked them both but wanted to try something new, so I'll be expecting German Butterball and Sangre. The variety that drowned last summer was the specialty one Nicola, which is supposed to have a very low glycemic index (good for people watching their carb intake like diabetics). I'll see if I can find that one again, I bought it locally last year.

As far as canning and preserving, I did "put up" several recipes, most tried and true one but a couple new attempts:
 Sour Cherry Lime Rickey Jam (new)
Raspberry Lime Jam
Dill Pickles
Pickled Roasted Red Peppers (new and delicious!)
-and-
Frozen:
Garlic Scape Pesto
GMO-free corn, "creamed"
Salsa
-also-
all the dried herbs (Parsley, Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme), dried Chili Powder, dried Beans.

We ate a lot fresh from the garden, and I didn't get enough tomatoes to can, only to eat fresh and use. Hopefully next year will be better. I'm just starting to think about planning for next summer, which varieties I want to grow, which colour tomatoes we're going to try, how to reorganize certain areas, what worked well and what I want to change or add... it is still early but come mid-March, it will be time to start Onion and Pepper seeds!


 

Spring Trees in bloom

Just a couple photos today of our trees - The Magnolia tree is a real show-stopper for the week that it blooms every year. Doesn't last long, but puts on a spectacular show.

The cherry trees have had it tough the past couple years, with late frosts and huge storms stripping most of the blossoms away, we've had almost no cherries. This looks to be a good year so far though, it is laden with blossoms.

And here they both are together ... what an incredible sight!