Mint Julep Pork Chops with Sugar Snap Peas

Plus The Kentucky Derby & Other Iconic American Experiences

It's a mint julep in a skillet! The pork chops are quickly cooked in a skillet, then drizzled with a bourbon-mint sauce. So simple, so satisfying, so summery! Perfect for Kentucky Derby dinners, perfect for an easy weeknight supper.

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

DISCLOSURE My trip to the Derby was sponsored by Pure Leaf, the folks who brew and bottle iced tea with real tea leaves. The opinions here are 100% my own but I am grateful to Pure Leaf for the privilege of experiencing the Kentucky Derby. I appreciate your supporting the brands which make Kitchen Parade possible. My Disclosure Promise

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• Mint Julep Pork Chops Made the List!
• Best Recipes of 2012

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“I’ll Have Another.”

We’ll hear this name all week. And I’m paying special attention.

You see, with “another” win at the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, the racehorse called "I'll Have Another" would become only the 12th Triple Crown winner in 137 years – and at cocktail parties from now on, I’d be able nonchalantly namedrop, “Yeah, I saw I’ll Have Another’s first win. Y’know, at the Derby. In 2012.”

Yeah, me, I was there. Really. I WAS THERE, at this year's Kentucky Derby. As the trip’s sponsor Pure Leaf put it, I won the “blogger lottery” that day. I sure did. Have you been? Me, I’d never even thought about going.

WHAT an experience! The tradition. The gentility. The pageantry. The spectacle. The mint juleps. The hats, ladies, the hats!

Wear the Hat, Dammit.

Years back, my mom and I had a private joke, her encouraging me to, no, make that insisting that I "Wear the Hat, Dammit". My sister's little boys giggled over this, prescient that forevermore, they'd be forgiven for uttering this admonishment complete with, tee hee, a swear word.

But at the Kentucky Derby, everybody wears a hat, frequently over-the-top flamboyant. I have thirty-five pictures of wonderful, wonderful hats but LOL, I'll spare you the full millinery parade.

But the range is from the tasteful and feminine ...

... to the outrageous and flamboyant ...

... to the lacy and, haha, fascinating.

Killer Shoes, Too!

The shoes were less obvious – who looks down when there's all those hats to inspect?

And besides, those killer shoes were not always on feet. There's lots of walking and standing at the Kentucky Derby. Killer shoes just might outright kill you!

LOL.

"I'll have another." Yes, it applies to mint juleps too!

Iconic American Experiences

But the Kentucky Derby has me thinking-thinking-thinking.

The Derby sits high on the list of iconic American experiences. Ever since, the Derby has me making lists of other lifetime experiences.

• City experiences like New Years in Times Square, Mardi Gras in New Orleans and the 4th of July in Washington, DC.
• Skyward experiences like the launch of the shuttle and the balloon fiesta in Albuquerque. A hot air balloon ride over snow country!
• Experiences in wide open country. The sweep of sunflowers in South Dakota and bluebonnets in the Texas Hill Country. The Medicine Wheel on top of the Big Horns in Wyoming. A dude ranch. The redwood forests of California. Loon-filled lakes in the Boundary Waters. The north shore of the Great Lakes. Weeping in the Badlands. Dodging spray at Niagara Falls.
• Experiences of art and literature. A Broadway play. Crystal Bridges. Oxford, Mississippi. Tanglewood. Live jazz, live blues, live gospel, live barbershop. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
• Experiences of spectacle. Las Vegas. Hollywood. Disney World. Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade. Graceland. Branson. A luau.
• Experiences of solemnity. The changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Dealey Plaza. Vicksburg. The Alamo. A veteran’s burial in a military cemetery, surrounded by rows and rows of white crosses. A Civil War re-enactment. The Statue of Liberty. A naturalization ceremony.
• Experiences of sport. Opening day. The Super Bowl. Tailgating before a college football game. Crewing a sailboat. A rodeo! Square dancing! The Indy 500 and NASCAR.
• Experiences of the open road. Gettin’ your kicks on Route 66. Highway 1 on the Pacific Coast. The Blue Ridge Parkway. The Great River Road. The Bourbon Trail. Amtrak cross-country. Supper at a busy highway truck stop.
• Shopping experiences. Fifth Avenue and Rodeo Drive. The Mall of America.
• Family experiences. A drive-in movie. A state fair. A neighborhood block party. A wedding in a meadow. Meeting new babies for the first time.

But you know, iconic experiences are close to home too.

In St. Louis, there’s our great modern architecture, the Gateway Arch. A moonlight boat ride on the Mississippi River. A tour of the Anheuser Bush Brewery. (Nine years I’ve lived here! No brewery tour.) Opening Day. The magical Circus Flora. The St. Louis Shakespeare Festival. Tubing on the Meramec. Chuck Berry in concert. The St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Dogtown. The new Lincoln Museum in Springfield. The Churchhill museum in Fulton.

For anyone who keeps a lifetime bucket list, the Derby deserves a spot. What iconic experiences are on your list? And what are the experiences from your own hometown, those I'd especially love to know. Who knows? Maybe you'll inspire some local tourism!

Meet Janelle from Talk of Tomatoes

While at the Kentucky Derby, I was thrilled to meet one of my long-time favorite bloggers, Janelle from Talk of Tomatoes. "Do you guys know each other?" we were asked again and again. No, but ... meeting Janelle in person exemplified something I learned during the early years of food blogging, when there were just a few of us and we all knew one another at least online: "... and when we meet, we’re already friends".

Janelle’s posts show exactly what it's like to experience the Kentucky Derby, see Kentucky Oaks: fillies, lilies & frillies and Kentucky Derby 2012, great photos, great storytelling. Oh! I think you might like Janelle's Pure Leaf Tea Watermelon Cocktail too!

Janelle lives in Seattle and is mom to two teenage boys and wife to the handsome James. Their family story is fascinating. Imagine, just imagine! selling all you own and moving to Europe for a year, spending the summer bicycling in Holland, then the school year living in the heart of Florence, Italy, the kids in Italian schools. Now Janelle and her crew are back in the States, fixing up a "fixer upper" and turning it into an urban farm.

Oh and of course, you noticed. Janelle is indeed a Julia Roberts look-alike!

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QUICK SUPPER: MINT JULEP PORK CHOPS with SUGAR SNAP PEAS

Hands-on time: 30 minutes
Time to table: 30 minutes
Serves 2, easily multiplied

PORK CHOPS
• 1/2 tablespoon butter
• 1/2 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 thick-cut bone-in pork chops
• Allspice
• Salt & pepper

MINT JULEP SAUCE
• 1/2 cup broth (beef, chicken, vegetable)
• 3 tablespoons bourbon
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 8 ounces sugar snap peas

• 2 sprigs fresh mint, the leaves bruised a bit to release the oil

COOK THE CHOPS In a large, heavy non-stick or well-seasoned skillet, heat butter and olive oil on medium heat. While the skillet heats, pat pork chops dry with paper towels, then rub with allspice, salt and pepper. Drop into the skillet and let cook without moving for about 5 minutes. Turn over and finish cooking until all pink is gone from the center or the internal temperature registers 145F/65C with a meat thermometer. Transfer to two warm plates and cover to rest.

COOK MINT JULEP SAUCE & SUGAR SNAP PEAS While the meat cooks, combine the broth, bourbon, brown sugar and balsamic vinegar in a small bowl. Once the meat is cooked, add it to the hot skillet (careful, it will sizzle!), then immediately toss in the sugar snap peas. Increase the heat to medium high until the mixture simmers, then cover and let simmer until the peas are cooked but still bright green and slightly crisp. With a slotted spoon, transfer sugar snap peas onto the plates.

REDUCE THE SAUCE Add the mint to sauce, increase the heat to high and boil hard, uncovered and stirring occasionally, until the mixture thickens and reduces by about half. Pull the mint leaves out of the sauce and discard.

SERVE & SAVOR Drizzle the pork chops and sugar snap peas with Mint Julep Sauce, serving extra sauce on the side.

ALANNA’s TIPS My years in Iowa make me partial to what Iowans call “Iowa Chops” – just bone-in chops cut one-inch thick. In Iowa, they’re sold that way in grocery stores. Here in Missouri, I have to order them from the butcher but do. The chops are big, about 8 ounces of meat, so I eat eat just half, saving the rest for later. No sugar snap peas? No problem, carrots are great too. And pretty! The Mint Julep Sauce is simply wonderful, I think it would be fabulous with chicken breasts cooked like Chicken Sybil. For fork-tender chops, an Epicurious commenter mentioned searing the chops, then baking them at low temperature for two and even three hours. I’ve done this, 300F for two hours is too hot. Next time I’ll try 200F for three hours. It’s a good cold-weather option. Careful readers (I love you!) might notice that the photograph shows bits of fresh mint in the sauce. I didn’t like this in the least, it’s ugly and kinda stringy. So now I use whole sprigs of fresh mint in the sauce, bruising the leaves to release the oils, then pull them out before serving. Much better.

NUTRITION ESTIMATE (assumes a standard serving of pork, that is, 4 ounces of uncooked meat or 3 ounces of cooked meat, that's about half an inch-thick Iowa chop; assumes meat and vegetable both; assumes 2/3 of bourbon's alcohol evaporates during cooking) Per Serving: 321 Calories; 13g Tot Fat; 5g Sat Fat; 69mg Cholesterol; 455mg Sodium; 16g Carb; 3g Fiber; 11g Sugar; 28g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 7 & PointsPlus 7 & SmartPoints 10 & Freestyle 8 This recipe has been "Alanna-sized".

Adapted from Epicurious via my subscription to Bon Appetit magazine.

RESOURCES Use a digital thermometer inserted into the thickest part of one of the chops to ensure the perfect cooking temperature. As for that perfect temperature, here's a long discussion on the safe cooking temperature for pork, Should Cooked Pork Be Pink?, lots of folks chiming in on the new USDA temperature. Every year, I subscribe to a different cooking magazine. This year it's Bon Appetit and I'm loving it!

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Seasonal Cooking: This Same Week, Across the Years

Savory Rhubarb Chutney Fish with Herb Butter Quinoa & Black Bean Salad Tropical Salad Supper Chicken Greek Salad Ten-Minute Foolproof Red Chile Sauce Ten-Minute Enchiladas Cold Shrimp in Creamy Dill Sauce with Capers Easy Shrimp Bites Mint Julep Pork Chops Spiced Pickled Red Onions

This Week, Elsewhere

~ Caleco's House Caesar Dressing ~
from Caleco's Bar and Grill
~ more St. Louis Restaurant Recipes ~
My Weekly Column in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch

~ Feta Stuffed Zucchini ~
~ more Recent Recipes ~
A Veggie Venture

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More Quick Supper Recipes for Summer

(hover with a mouse for a description; otherwise click a photo to view the recipe)

~ more easy summer main dishes ~
~ more pork chop recipes ~

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Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ pork recipes ~
~ recipes for peas ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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