Pork and Peaches

This was a first for me. I have cooked pork with apples but peaches? Never! I also am not one for cooking meat and fruit, so you know I was trepedicious when I tried this recipe… but I really shouldn’t have been trepedicious since I made the recipe as I went along. Oh well…this was a delicious meal. Peter who always makes a fuss when I make pork even loved it!

I made the recipe for two but go ahead and double or triple it as needed.

2 1½” thick pork chops

1/3 cup bread crumbs

1/3 cup onion, dice small

1 garlic clove minced or pressed

1 link italian sausage

1 slice ham diced

1/3 cup finely chopped celery

1 large ripe peach finely chopped

½ to ¾ cup finely chopped zucchini

2 Tablespoons finely chopped parsley

1 teaspoon dry ground sage

1 Tablespoon pork gravy powder

1 Tablespoon Wondra

½ teaspoon dry, crumbled sage

salt and pepper to taste

2 teaspoons Olive oil

1 teaspoon butter

½ cup water

Make a slit on the side of the pork chop, opposite the bone. Insert a knife and cut almost to the edge, but not through. Run a finger around to make sure that you have an unobstructed pocket. Set aside.

Spray a skillet on medium heat with cook spray. Brown sausage slowly stirring. While the sausage is cooking chop up the vegetables and add to the skillet, adding the chopped ham last. Scrape the sausage vegetable mixture into a bowl, add the bread crumbs, sage and parsley and stir well. Let cook.

Divide the stuffing mix into two. Stuff the pork chops with the mixture; tie up with butcher’s twine or use tooth picks to close the openings. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the wondra. If any stuffing is left over, serve it on top of the pork chops.

Spray skillet with cook spray add the olive oil and butter to skillet over hot heat. Place the pork chops in the skillet and brown the chops on both sides. Add the pork gravy mix and water to the skillet, bring to a boil, lower heat, cover, cook on low for 20 minutes. Add a little more water to the skillet if there is not enough gravy. Spoon the gravy over the chops when you serve.

I like to serve this dish with l/2 lb of steamed green beans tossed with 1 Tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 small clove of pressed garlic and seasoned with salt and pepper. Along with fresh crusty bread and a salad made of ripe tomato and cucumbers seasoned with salt and pepper and olive oil this is a really easy and quite elegant dinner menu.

Enjoy…oh yeah have some fresh ripe peaches with a little cream on top sprinkled with brown sugar for desert. yummy…..

Serves 2