Sichuan Pepper Pork Chops with Japanese Sweet Potato and Brown Lentils

This is another one of my favorite dishes.  I like it when meat has slow-cooked, when it’s falling apart or is miraculously tender, and when the combined flavors of the over-all dish has truly set into the meat with the right balance of good taste.  This is hearty and simple to put together.  Just give it time, 1 1/2 to 2 hours in the oven.  You will be pleased with this arrangement, with the outcome.  

Preheat oven to 300º F.  In a large skillet on medium-high heat, sear both sides of 3 to 5 thin-cut pork chops.  Salt and pepper them after they have been seared to ensure more tenderness in the final end.

With a mortar and pestle, crush Sichuan pepper.  It is significantly used to accent fish, poultry, cheese, and vegetables, so I want this lemon-like, woodsy overtone of a spice in caramelizing white onion.  It will contribute to the main course nicely, even though it’s pork.

Sauté 1 large white onion, cut into slivers.  Add salt and some of the crushed pepper.  When browned, remove the onion strips from the skillet and drape over the meat to keep the meat from drying out while the remainder of the dish is prepared.

Into the skillet, add 1/2 cup red balsamic vinegar, scraping the bottom of the skillet to scoop up the meat drippings; stir and add 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard.  Pour into the hot liquid 14 to 15 ounces chicken broth.  Peel 1 large sweet potato, preferably Japanese but any sweet potato will do– I like the particular flavor of the Japanese sweet potato.  The sweetness on any sweet potato makes this dish more filling, and it accentuates the Sichuan pepper.  Lay slices of raw sweet potato into the broth, then 1 cup uncooked lentils.  Place most of the caramelized onion over all of it.  Lay the pork chops over the onion strips, then put the last remaining onion pieces over the chops.  Sprinkle more salt and pepper.  The broth will cook into the lentils and sweet potato; then cook into the meat portions.  Cover tightly with aluminum foil.  Check the oven after 1 1/2 hours to see if the liquid has soaked up; there should be no liquid left.  It should not be too dry.

healthily hearty