Thyme Rubbed Pork Chops with Apple-Shallot Sauce

Well I think it's safe to say that Dinners for a Year and Beyond has redeemed itself after the monstrous disaster of the last meal.  Last night I tried a new recipe called Thyme Rubbed Pork Chops with Apple-Shallot Sauce . Holy cow was it delicious and EASY!  Now Caleb and I might be slightly biased toward ANY pork and apple recipe, but this one is in the top two.  It may seem like a lot, but it came together so easily and stress-free that I would want to make it tomorrow, the next day, and maybe even the next.

But back to dinner, I started by seasoning up the pork chops with salt, pepper, and fresh thyme.  I made sure and smushed the thyme in there real good.

Then it was time to chop, chop, chop or as Anne Burrell would say, "prepare the Mise en place".  


I started boiling the potatoes up for some yummy and creamy mashed potatoes.

Then I started searing the chops in about 1 tbs of EVOO and 1 tbs butter.  The butter just gives it much more color and flavor. 

 After about 3 1/2 minutes per side I took out the chops and put them on a plate under some foil and added the apple slices and shallot to the oil. 

After sauteing for about 5 minutes, I added 1/2 cup chicken stock and 1/4 cup white wine.  I let it simmer up and found it a bit to liquidy for my taste, so I added about 1 tbs of heavy cream as well as a sprinkle of flour to make it a bit more decadent and rich.

The next step was to season it up, and really this is where the recipe just goes over the top.  It called for garam masala, which is a spice mix I do not have, but after a bit of research I found that it was simply a mix of  cumin, coriander, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and black pepper.  Now I now this sounds like a lot, but after perusing the pantry I found that I have all of these spices except the coriander and cardamom. I  searched on and found that another option added all spice and nutmeg to make up for the others, so that is precisely what I did.  Man oh man, that cinnamon and ginger and nutmeg... it made for an explosion of taste in your mouth.  It really was over the top and oh so yummy!  If you don't have the clove or whatever, just add some all spice and cinnamon, even that would have been enough.  But the mixture of all of those really was amazing.
Now for a basically one pot meal, this was so amazingly delicious that I actually licked my plate clean.  After topping with a couple of sprigs of thyme, it just all came together. 

Excuse my messy plate, but this sauce was awesome...

Also, here's a nice pic of Hercules taking over my seat so that I can't enjoy my dinner.  It's been a while since he's been featured, and these are his tails.