Thyme Maple Pork Stacks With Bleu Cheese and a Cranberry Topping

This takes everyday ingredients and makes an amazing dish. I serve this all the time for catering events, dinner parties and just for a quick dinner at home. It takes minutes to cook and is easy on the budget for an elegant dish. This is a wonderful holiday party dish as well. Serve with some wild rice and either a nice green vegetable or grilled romaine or endive salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. Simple and easy. Three parts to this, but one at a time. Make the filling ahead of time 3 minutes and 3 ingredients; then season, grill and baste the pork as it cooks, then as the pork rests, make the topping in just 2 minutes. Delish!

• Ready In: 40 mins
• Serves: 4
• Yields: 4 Pork Stacks

Ingredients

• Pork

• 8   (3/4-inch thick)
• 1  medium onion (cut in quarters and thin sliced)
• 2  tablespoons butter
• 2  tablespoons maple syrup
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 teaspoon pepper
• 1  tablespoon  olive oil to saute the pork

• Cheese Filling

• 1⁄4 cup walnuts, chopped fine
• 1⁄2 cup  crumbled blue cheese (gorgonzola works fine as well)
• 3  fresh figs, diced fine

• Cranberry

• 1 1⁄2 cups cranberry sauce
• 1⁄3 cup white wine
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme
•  salt
•  pepper

Directions

1. Cheese Filling -- Add the figs, bleu cheese crumbles and walnuts to a small bowl and mix well. I like to use a fork to make sure everything is well combined. You can easily make this ahead, but I do take it out to let it soften a little before I use it.
2. Butter Sauce -- In a small sauce pan or you can use a small microwave safe cup, melt the butter, maple syrup and the thyme - thats it. This is what you will baste the pork with as it cooks.
3. Pork -- Bring your pork loin slices to room temperature and season well on both sides with salt and pepper.
4. Saute -- In a large saute pan (I prefer cast iron or stainless, not non-stick if possible) heat the olive oil to medium high to high heat and add the pork slices. I also add the onions around the pork. Brush the pork on both sides with the maple butter as the pork cooks. Cook 3-4 minutes on the first side and then flip. Cook just another 3 minutes or so until brown and then we need to stack the pork. Remove from the stove.
5. On one pork slice, brush with any remaining maple butter and then top with a mix of the bleu cheese, figs and walnuts and top with another chop. Do that with all chops until you have 4 stacks. Put back on the stove - medium high to high heat like before and cover with a lid or foil and cook just another minute, then flip the stack so the top slice of pork can cook for another minute. Done! Remove the pork to a serving platter and cover to let it rest while you make the cranberry sauce. Keep the onions in the pan.
6. Cranberry -- In the same saute pan that you cooked the pork in, add the white wine to deglaze on medium heat and cook 1 minute, then add in the thyme, cranberry sauce and season with a pinch of salt and pepper and cook 1-2 minutes until heated through.
7. Serving -- I like to serve this over wild rice, but you can use any of your favorites. 1 stack per person and drizzle the warm cranberry onion sauce over the pork. Elegant easy, quick and worthy of a dinner party or just a great family dinner. Pork tenderloin works equally as well for this. A great dinner.