March 14, 2011, new recipes

Hoping Carl enjoyed a fabulous dinner in London. Tonight I made Pork Chops with Apricot-Tomato Chutney, from EatingWell.com. The recipe called for canned tomatoes, but I used fresh. There is no sugar in the chutney, so the only sweetness comes from the dried apricots--this resulted in a nicely balanced chutney, flavorful but not very sweet. I was very pleased with this! I served it with Broccoli Sauteed in Garlic and Blood Orange Juice. This is a riff off Mario Batali's Broccoli Sauteed in Wine and Garlic. The citrus juice brightened it nicely and it was a great complement to the pork chop. I would do both again!

The wine was a 2004 Ken Forrester Petit Pinotage--fruity, with dark red fruit, not a lot of oak. I hoped it would be a nice complement to the pork, as well as the brighter citrus and tomato-apricot flavors. It worked even better than I hoped! A very nice meal and wine combination!