Lavender Rubbed Pork Chops with Cranberry Reduction Sauce

We love topping our holiday meals with cranberry sauce, but it seems like we overshoot how much we need every year (especially as our family - and our table portions - continue to grow)!  As we move away from holiday dishes that typically call for this favorite jelly, we find ourselves wondering what to do with all our leftover cranberry sauce. 

We love how it's sweet and tart flavor tops the salty turkey at Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we thought we'd put it to use over a savory family favorite - pork chops!  We added a pinch of our organic culinary lavender buds and found ourselves with a delicious success that we now plan to add to our post-holiday meal plan every year.

 

Lavender Rubbed Pork Chops with Cranberry Reduction Sauce

Ingredients

• 6 half inch thick pork chops
• 2 Tbs olive oil
• 1 tsp Pelindaba Organic Culinary Lavender
• 4 garlic cloves
• 14 oz cranberry sauce or jelly (Canned? Totally acceptable. Want to try it with some homemade sauce? This simple recipe from Epicurious is one of our holiday go-tos.)
• 8 oz white wine (A sherry lends itself to this dish very nicely, but any white or sweet rose works well, too.)
• 2 Tbs butter
• salt and pepper, to taste

 

 

Preparation

1. Pat pork chops dry with a paper towel.  Sprinkle each side evenly with salt, pepper, and lavender and rub into the meat.  Allow the meat to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes.
2. Mince your garlic cloves.  Mix cranberry sauce, garlic and wine until fairly uniform.
3. Heat your olive oil on medium-high heat in a sauce pan or large iron skillet. (The pan needs to be large enough to hold the liquids later for the reduction sauce.)
4. Place meat in the pan, allowing it to sear for approximately 4 minutes on each side.
       
    
     
5. Remove meat from pan, cover with foil, and set aside.
6. Slowly add the wine mixture to the hot pan and leave to simmer until the garlic is soft and the crispy pork fond (the little brown bits left in the pan) releases from the bottom of the pan. 
7. Swirl in the butter a little at a time, whisking briskly as you go until the sauce is reduced to 1/2 and is thick and dark, about 8 minutes. The butter will make the sauce silky and round out the flavors. 
8. Generously top your pork chops with the sauce and enjoy!
   
        
   

 

Some Notes About Cooking with Lavender 

Lavender is in the same family as rosemary.  It lends itself very nicely to savory dishes.  When cooking with lavender, you want to be sure to only use lavender labeled for culinary purposes, otherwise your dish will tend to be bitter or overly floral from its pungent essential oils.

Also keep in mind that because of its strong flavor, a little goes a long way!  Indulging in too many buds will also have the same undesired effect. If you want to learn more about cooking with lavender, we have lots more information here.

If you have more of a sweet tooth, you can try lavender in countless sweet dishes like iced cream, shortbread cookies, teas, chutneys, chocolates, and a long list of other delightful, sugary treats.  Unlike it's close rosemary kin, lavender pairs deliciously on the sweet side of the palate as well.

If you're interested in trying more delectable meals, sides, sauces, and desserts with lavender, you'll enjoy skimming through all the recipes in our Lavender Cookbook.

We hope you'll try this dish, share it with family and friends, and maybe even make it a new holiday tradition to put some of that extra cranberry sauce to good use every year - we certainly intend to!  Enjoy!