Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

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*Just a note:

(I didn't measure any of this out when I made this tonight, so these measurements are all guesses--also, I made a batch about twice this big for a bunch of family so I had to adjust these measures in my head. I know many people like to limit basalmic vinegar on Atkins, especially induction, but this is such a small amount and adds a lot to the flavor--and this obviously an OWL dish due to the berries. Please feel free to adjust them as I'm sure many ratios would work just as well.)


Ingredients

1.5 to 2 pounds of pork chops
1 cup of fresh blackberries
2 cups dry cooking sherry
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 packet splenda (optional)

Place blackberries in a bowl. Mash with a fork but make sure the mixture is still chunky and looks like berries (do not puree).
Pour sherry in a frying pan.
Add blackberries.
Add butter and melt it into the mixture over medium heat until it's completely mixed in.
Add basalmic vinegar and splenda, if using.
Continue to reduce mixture over medium heat until the liquid is no longer runny but not to the point where it becomes syrupy.
Put pork chops in pan, reduce heat to low simmer, and cover.
Check pork chops occasionally. When they are cooked through, remove from heat and serve. Ladle some blackberry/wine mixture over the pork chop when serving.

(Serves 2-4, depending on appetite and complementary side dishes)

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Re: Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

Oh I ran the foods through fitday and looked some stuff that wasn't on fitday up on other nutrition sites and I've come up with a rough carb count for the entire recipe:

Total Recipe: 28 carbs total; 8g fiber ---> 20 net carbs
Per small serving (4 per recipe) = 5 net carbs
Per huge serving = 10 net carbs

It's really quite delicious... I recommend if you make it yourself that you play with the amounts and find something that suits your taste. Ours was quite good and didn't taste like dessert... blackberries and red wine really marry each other in it; if you wanted it sweet, you could just add more Splenda.

[bjs1976]

Re: Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

Sounds Yummy!!

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

sounds good, but I just looked up cooking sherry and that would be 24 carbs for 2 cups and 18 carbs for a cup of blackberries = 42 carbs ( the site didn't give me the fiber so I didn't subtract that)

What were the counts you got off of fitday for sherry and for blackberries?

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Re: Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

hmm... I didn't have a carb count for the sherry, so I used a red wine I was familiar with... that must be the discrepancy...

if you wanted, you could use a lot less sherry because you cook it down so much really...

you also don't consume most of the sherry, if that makes any sense... it just kicks around in the pan.

I got 18g for blackberries, minus 8g of fiber... my red wine count gave me 7g carb for 2 cups of table wine... I wasn't aware that the sherry was so much higher, but you don't really drink all that sherry (80% of it stays in the pan), so I'm sure it would help.

Oh well. I thought I made a good estimate... even with sherry that high, I'd estimate it's pretty close, seeing as most it just hangs around. The wine/blackberry mixture doesn't steep into the center of the pork chop, just the outer layer.

With the sherry at that carb count, there are still 8g of fiber in the blackberries, so there would only be 34 net with your info on sherry, so that would be 8.5 per small serving, and 17 per huge serving, if the sherry permeated every pore and you drank the sauce (not recommended; you would twitch up a storm at the tartness)

[2big4mysize]

Re: Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

I was watching Alton Brown last night cooking coq au vin and was wondering about the ungodly amount of cooking wine in that dish, but they has a wine fellow on that said as your wine cooks down the flavor observed goes up cause the alcohol evaporates as does the water so you really need all the wine in the recipes.

However this carb count for this recipe will depend if a dry sherry or a sweet sherry is being used as the carb counts vary tremendously .2 g per ounce for dry http://www.drinksmixer.com/desc521.html to 2.5 g per ounce for sweet http://www.drinksmixer.com/desc437.html
or for this recipe 3.2 grams dry vs 40 grams sweet and since you are discussing bitterness I'm guessing you used dry in your recipe changing

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

you drank the sauce (not recommended; you would twitch up a storm at the tartness)

LOL, I'd probably be the one to drink the sauce! It sounds like a great recipe.

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Re: Blackberry Braised Pork Chops

Yes, our sherry was very dry. Thanks for all that info, 2big... who knew cooking wine could be so fascinating?