Dukkah-Crusted Pork Chops with Roasted Cardamom Carrots

When we took a pizza and focaccia class last year, the instructor (the most awesome Chris French) introduced us to dukkah. In case you don't know, dukkah is an Egyptian nut-and-spice blend of almonds (or some other type of nut), sesame seeds, fennel seeds, coriander, anise seeds and kosher salt, and it is delicious. It imparts an exotically tasty flavor and crunchy coating to anything you put it in, and last week we put it on some pork chops. Holy Isis, were they good!

We dredged the chops first in flour, the in a beaten egg, then in the dukkah to make it stick better and pan-fried the chops in a skillet with a little oil and butter. We think cardamom proffers a mysterious flavor to dishes as well, so we roasted our side dish, carrots, in cardamom-infused butter. Sure, we haven't been A Couple in the Kitchen much lately (more like, a couple in the take-out lane), but this was a fabulous dinner that we've raved about, and craved, ever since.

Make the carrots first and put them in the oven. Wait about 15 minutes, then start the chops and both should come out around the same time.

We like the dukkah blend sold at Trader Joe's. 

Dukkah-Crusted Pork Chops 

serves two

Ingredients:

2 center-cut boneless pork chops

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 egg, beaten

1/4 cup dukkah 

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 tablespoon unsalted butter
pomegranate molasses (optional)

Coat pork chops (on both sides) first in flour, then in the beaten egg, then in the dukkah blend. Put aside in the refrigerator for 10-15 minutes. Heat oil and butter in a large skillet and pan-fry the pork chops until they are browned on both sides. Place the chops in a 350-degree oven and cook to desired temperature, about 10 minutes. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses if desired.

Roasted Cardamom Carrots

serves two

Ingredients:

4 carrots, peeled and sliced

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

4 whole cardamom pods

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place cardamom pods and butter in a small saucepan and melt butter over low heat. Pour butter with cardamom pods over sliced carrots in a small baking dish. Place in oven and roast for 30-40 minutes, until tender.

Secret Recipe Club: Chicken Curry with Whole Spices

When we read about Amanda's (of Amanda's Cookin') Secret Recipe Club, we hoped we weren't too late to join. Well, we were. For that month's "meeting" anyway. But we were "inducted" into the club shortly afterward and are thrilled to be participating in July's posting.

The SRC is a group of food blogging enthusiasts who are assigned another person's blog from which they must read, choose, make and post about, a recipe. The "secret" part is that the person whose recipe we're making doesn't know who we are. All postings are posted at the same time on the same date (what we call the Big Reveal), and it's all great fun.

The blog we were assigned is Passionate About Baking. This beautifully written and photographed blog is by Deeba Rajpal of India. Now, one would think we would have chosen one of her many dozens of baking recipes. However, since it is our first SRC, we decided to celebrate "first timeness" and use Deeba's recipe for "Khade Masale Ka Korma," or "Chicken Curry with Whole Spices" to make our first homemade curry. This particular curry called to us not only because of the use of whole spices but also because of the wonderful simplicity of the dish.

The khade mesale, or whole spices used in this dish

We followed Deeba's recipe, found here, halving the amounts of the ingredients (since we were cooking for two), using Szechuan peppercorns in place of black, and serving the chicken with steamed basmati rice. The result was chicken that was cooked to a perfect texture in an aromatic curry sauce that had a flavorful and comforting spiciness to it. In a word, delightful.

The base of the dish, ghee (or clarified butter)

First, we melted some ghee...

...and sauteed sliced onions in it.

We added some green cardamom pods, whole cloves and Szechuan peppercorns.

Next, we added onion, garlic and ginger that we had ground quickly in a food processor.

This curry gets additional flavor as well as its color from hot paprika.

A few tablespoons of yogurt and some water were added before we put on the cover and allowed the chicken to cook.

The finished product, served with basmati rice.