Pork Chops with Sweet Corn Maque Choux

Thanks to the holidays and some great times with the family, it's been awhile since I've cooked anything from the PJ cookbook. I've lined up 3 PJ meals this week before Christmas goes into full swing. Tonight I prepared the Pork Chops with Sweet Corn Maque Choux ("Mock Shoe").

I purchased these wonderfully thick chops at Central Market. These are bone-in with a good amount of fat to really bring in some extra flavor.


Up next was preparing the Maque Choux which is a traditional dish of southern Lousiana consisting of corn, red bell pepper, onion and a dash of cayenne pepper. Think a spruced up cream corn. The photo in the PJ CB shows the corn not as creamy. Actually it's not creamy at all. I followed the recipe as outlined, however, I would have toned down the heavy cream. It called for 1/2 cup which was a bit much, however, the Maque Choux was still delicious.


The pork chops were to be cooked in the drippings left over from the cooked garlic. The recipe called for 8-10 thinly sliced cloves which was a ton of garlic. I only cooked 6 cloves. They were cooked in some olive oil and basically roasted into little garlic chips which were to be a garnish for the final dish. More on the garlic later.


Cooking the pork chops was quite simple. Salt and pepper on each side then cooked covered for about 10-12 minutes on each side. Once the pork chops were properly cooked, the reciped called for a pan wine sauce using 2 cups reduced dry white wine and 2 tablespoons unsalted butter. This sauce was intensly rich as it brought together all the flavors left in the pan from the garlic, pork chops and wine.


The final platting called for the pork chops to be served on top of the maque choux with a few garlic chips and the pan sauce. Another side used in the PJ CB was sauteed kale which we couldn't find.

Rating: 91 points
Difficulty: Easy
Date Cooked: December 6, 2009

Overall this was a great dish. The pork chops were very juicy and the Maque Choux added a nice little kick of flavor. Oh, and that garlic. Holy sh!t. I ate one the garlic chips with a bite of the chops and that's all I tasted the rest of the meal. It was intensly strong. Too much if you ask me. I am actually still tasting the garlic as I write this.