Recipe - Iowa Chop With Apricot Pecan Stuffing

Posted by Stewart Hopper

STUFFING MIXTURE:
8 ounce Dried apricots
1/3 cup Brandy
2/3 cup Hot water
One half cup Onion, minced
One half pound Unsalted butter
12 ounce Broken pecans (not chopped)
1 tablespoon Fennel seed
1 teaspoon White pepper
1 teaspoon Nutmeg
2 ounce Dried currants
1 tablespoon Grated orange peel
One fourth cup Apricot jam
56 whole eggs
One half teaspoon Salt
1 pound Packaged seasoned bread
stuffing crumbs
PORK:
12 68oz Iowa Chops
3 to 4 tablespoon vegetable oil
OPTIONAL FLAMBE:
1 cup Brandy

Soak apricots in brandy and water for One half hour. Drain, reserving
liquid, and chop apricots finely. Place together in a large bowl.

Saute onions in butter until tender. Add to apricots and reserved
liquid; set aside to cool slightly.

Add remaining stuffing ingredients (except the bread stuffing crumbs)
in order given. Mix well to break up the eggs.

Add bread crumbs and mix well. Refrigerate stuffing while preparing
pork.

Make a pocket in the meat by slicing horizontally toward the bone
halfway up the thickness of the chop. Stuff each chop with about 1/3
cup of the prepared stuffing, then sear both sides of the chop in a
skillet with the vegetable oil in it. Arrange the chops in a baking
pan, cover, and bake for 3540 minutes in a 350 degree oven. (when
pork tests 160 internally, it is done)

There will be about 2 quarts of stuffing left, which should be served
as a side dish. Place it in a greased baking dish and bake uncovered
in the oven with the pork.

Heat brandy in a small saucepan until hot but not boiling. Pour hot
brandy into the hot baking pan with the meat, then touch with a
lighted match. The brandy will flame up, and at this point you can
carry the meat dish to the table and place it on a heavy trivet. The
flames will subsidde after a minute or so, but the baking dish will
be too hot to pass, so the chops must be served by the host or
hostess.

Recipe by Leanne Jonker of Iowa City, Iowa; as published in the Cedar
Rapids Gazette 19 Nov 1994.

File ftp://ftp.idiscover.co.uk/pub/food/mealmaster/recipes/iowapork.zip