Cider-Cured Pork Chops

This recipe is from Sam Sifton for The New York Times a few years ago.

We made the whole meal as part of Mother's Day 2009:
Cider-Cured Pork Chops
Caramelized Apples and Onions
and
A Cheat's Bordelaise Sauce.

But the shopping, oh the shopping! made all the difference. We got everything on Saturday so the meat could brine for at least one whole day.

We went to Butcher Block in Sunnyside for the meat. (We call it "the Irish butcher." Db is willing to go with us becuase the story carries all kinds of unusual British chips, like onion flavored and bacon.

In order to get the meat the way he wanted it -- whole bone instead of sliced through -- Husband asked for "loin chops, frenched," and apparently the butcher thought that was a lot of work so he told us how to order next time: "Just ask for thick-cut chops, bone-in."

I was skeptical of the description in the article (from the Magazine, January 23, 2005) of the bed of "pillowy apples" the chops were on, but lo and behold, those Granny Smiths really were pillowy. And delicious. They were also from the Irish butcher.

The white onions, though, were from a bodega by the shoe store where we had to go to get our son's new shoes. I ran in to get Husband a soda and noticed how nice the onions looked, and decided to grab them right there. produce is so hit-or-miss around here, especially onions -- our next stop store might not even have white onions or no good ones.

We've never cooked with white onions before, they were really good. Mild.

Husband was a little disappointed not to have demi-glace for the sauce, but I thought it was good. 25 hours? 2 recipes to cook before you can even get to making the demi-glace? 2 gallons of sauces to boil down? Maybe we'll buy some online for next time.

I have to agree with Sifton's last sentence of the article: "It's a fiddle, sure. But it makes for a fine Sunday night dinner." It definitely did.