Harry & David’s Seasonal Chef Program
Seasonally inspired recipes featuring our October Fruit of the Month, the Royal Riviera® Pear.
Esteemed Chef Elizabeth Falkner developed and wrote this fresh take on the classic pan seared pork chop by pairing it with pears sauteed in honey and balsamic vinegar and mixed with mustard greens.
This week we invited Lori Lange of RecipeGirl to prepare Chef Faulkner’s recipe, and she blogged about her experience making the Pan Seared Pork Chops with Pear Mostarda along with her family’s assessment of the meal.
Let us know what you think. Will you substitute the traditional combination of pork chops and apples for pork chops and pears?
Pan Seared Pork Chops with Pear Mostarda Recipe
Ingredients:
For Pork Chops:
- ½ tsp fennel seeds
- ½ tsp black peppercorns
- 2 tsp kosher salt
- 1 tsp light brown sugar
- 2 bone-in center cut pork chops (10 to 12 ounces each)
- 1 tsp Olive oil
For Mostarda:
- 2 Tbsp Olive oil
- ½ medium onion (diced)
- 2 Harry & David® Royal Riviera® Pears (diced half-inch cubes)
- ¼ cup honey
- 1 tsp mustard powder or mustard seeds (I used powder)
- 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 cup mustard greens (torn, for serving)
Instructions:
- Grind together the fennel, peppercorns, salt and sugar. Use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle. In a pinch, you can place the spices into a freezer zip and crush them with a mallet. Rub spice mixture all over pork chops and let them sit at room temperature for 15 minutes.
Prepare the chops:
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Preheat a cast iron skillet to medium-high heat on the stove. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the chops to the skillet and sear 4 to 5 minutes on each side, turning down heat to medium if necessary. Flip again and transfer to the oven for 4 to 5 minutes, until cooked to desired doneness (145 degrees is considered safe for serving, but the temperature will continue to rise 5 or so degrees as the chops rest so keep this in mind). Let the chops rest, while you prepare the mostarda.
Prepare the mostarda:
- In a large skillet (I used nonstick) on medium heat, add the olive oil and then the onion. Cook the onions until they begin to soften (4 to 5 minutes), then add the pears along with the honey, mustard, vinegar, salt and pepper. Turn heat to low and let simmer for about 5 minutes. Add a splash of water if the pan becomes too dehydrated. Set aside to cool a bit.
For serving:
- Toss the mostarda with the mustard greens. Set a pork chop on each plate and top with the mostarda. Serve immediately.
3 Comments
Made this evening, flavored were spot on. Only change if making again would be less cook time. At four minutes per side and another four in oven, still too well done. Would do 3, 3 and 3 next time since we like on the edge of medium rare/medium.
i love complex flavors. i teaked this a bit, trying to preserve the integrity of the pears. making a double-batch, I added about 2 Tbsp’s of orange juice concentrate before reduction, plus a bit of freshly-ground nutmeg and cinnamon, and a couple crushed cardamom seeds.
came out wonderfully, though i had to make do without the mustard greens.
if anyone tries this, let me know!
Great recipe! I made this for dinner last night with some minor tweaks to the recipe and it was absolutely delicious. What a great idea to substitute pears for apples along with pork chops.
I reduced the balsamic vinegar, honey and mustard mixture so it was about half of the original volume and then covered the sauteed onions and fresh royal riviera pears with the reduction. The sweet and tangy combination of the reduction was amazing and paired perfectly with the pears and the pork chops.