Pork Loin Chops and Yams in Spicy Orange Sauce

Submitted by Beanwean

"The cumin and the orange blend together in a fragrant and spicy sauce."

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 17
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 6 boneless pork loin chops, 3/4-inch thick
• 1⁄3 cup flour
• 1⁄2 - 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 -5 yams
• 1 onion, minced
• 2 -3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 cup beef stock
• 1 1⁄2 cups fresh orange juice
• 1⁄2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• 1⁄2 teaspoon oregano
• 1⁄4 - 1⁄2 teaspoon cumin
• 2 teaspoons orange peel, grated
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch
• 1 orange, peeled and thinly sliced

directions

1. Yams: cut into 2" chunks and boil until lightly tender. Drain, rinse in cold water, peel and set aside.
2. Mix granulated garlic and pepper with flour in plastic bag. Dredge pork chops and saute in oil in large pan until lightly browned. Remove from pan and set aside.
3. In the pan the pork was cooked in, saute onions and garlic until onions are translucent. To pan add beef stock, orange juice, red pepper flakes, cumin and oregano. Return pork to pan. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered for 40 minutes, turning pork halfway through. Add yams and cover, simmer for another 5 minutes.
4. Remove pork and yams from pan, set aside and keep warm.
5. Whisk together lemon juice, cornstarch and orange peel. Pour into pan juices. Bring to a boil and simmer, stirring, until thickened, about 3 minutes. Return pork and yams to pan. Cover and simmer for 3-5 minutes.
6. Plate pork and yams with generous helping of pan juices. Garnish with orange slices and serve.

Reviews

[ohbother]

If you love orange flavored pork and yams, this recipe is for you! We had great hopes for this recipe -- my husband loves both yams and pork, so we thought it would be a great Father's Day meal to try. At least from our perspective, though, we found that the proportion of yams to pork chops was way too much in favor of the yams, even though we only used three medium sized ones. Except for the fact that I chopped the yams to about half the recommended size (1 inch chunks instead of 2), and increased the seasonings late in the cooking process slightly, I followed it exactly. We found that the sauce itself was overpoweringly orange flavored -- even though I increased the spices a little while cooking, it just didn't balance with the orange juice. I think if I make this again I will try decreasing the orange juice by replacing half of it with a larger amount of vegetable stock instead of beef stock, and will at least double, maybe triple, the red pepper, cumin, and organo (well, maybe only double the cumin -- it's a strongly flavored spice!). I know that a lot of this is personal taste -- we like spicy, tangy food, and this just didn't live up to that expectation; it was all yams and orange juice -- we couldn't even taste the meat. :=(