I remembered that I had some Herbes de Provence in the spice cupboard and wanted to use that up, too.
Netsearching for pork chops and herbes de provence (in the French language) came up with:
Côtes de porc sauce moutarde et herbes de provence
So I do owe whoever dreamed this recipe up gratitude. I will add this to my permanent repetitive book of things I like to cook.
For those of you who don't speak French, I will give the recipe in English.
For two chops or two for dinner. You can easily make this for 4 to 6 by increasing the ingredients proportionally.
Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 15 minutes
1 cup of rice (per 2 people)
2 pork chops, about 5 ounces each. They can be larger, but not much smaller.
crème liquide allégée - no quantity is specified and the instructions call for reducing it. To my best understanding, this is like American "Half and Half". Our Half and Half is about 10% cream, 90% milk. The French have theirs at 15% and I used heavy cream and am happy I did. You can make this with heavy cream and milk.
2 tsp. Dijon Mustard (not Yellow Mustard here, please)
3 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion, diced, per 2 people
sage leaves, fresh
Herbes de Provence (I have Penzey's in the cupboard, but any will work)
salt
pepper
First, using a paper towel dry the chops. Put them on a plate or pan and sprinkle each chop with salt and pepper and then cover them with the herbes de provence. Reserve.
Start making the rice. The chops take 15 minutes in a skillet or frying pan and the skillet will need 10 minutes to preheat. Time your rice accordingly. Mine takes 4 minutes to reach a boil, 25 minutes of simmering and will then stay quite hot for 30 minutes thereafter, if I don't uncover it.
I use my small toaster oven for heating plates and keeping food warm. It will be used for keeping the fried chops warm while making the sauce.
The French recipe calls for putting the chops into a non-stick skillet and starting the cooking from a cold pan. I didn't do that. The purpose of the cold pan is to prevent the chops from cupping or curling. This can be achieved by making 3/16 inch deep slits around the perimeter of the chop, every two to three inches.
Add a light film of olive oil to the heated pan. Cook the chops on each side for 7 1/2 minutes. Meanwhile chop the onion and mush the garlic. Have ready the sage leaves and cream or half-and-half and the mustard. If you don't mind the cream and mustard should be standing on the counter at the start of the chops cooking to lose their 'frig-chill. After the chops are done, remove them to a warm oven.
Add the onion and fry 5 minutes until they are translucent. Add the garlic at the 3 minute mark. Add the cream. You will have to eye-ball that based on how much you like sauce with rice. Raise the heat, add the mustard stir to incorporate.
Now for the hard part.
Remove some of the sauce and onions to cover the chops. Add the sage leaves to the skillet and allow to cook 5 minutes longer. Serve the rice, pan sauce and the chops and onion sauce on top.
I had no fresh sage leaves. I used powdered sage. I cannot complain.
