I was in this French bistro the other day up in Boulder, Colorado called Brasserie Ten Ten.  Good food, good atmosphere, great wine.  I had a dish there that inspired me to go home and make a similar dish for myself.

I usually do not go out to a restaurant and order pork chops.  However, this time, I took the plunge.  I tried the Cote de Porc, which is a roasted pork chop with tomato provencal, sauteed greens and topped with garlic herb butter.  The garlic butter had tarragon in it and it was excellent complement to the pork.  I thought this is great! However, I can do better than this.  I came home and found the recipe for Pork Chops with Tarragon Sauce and Cornichons.

This dish blew me away.  It is made with pork rib chop sauteed with a rub of salt, pepper and fresh chopped tarragon.  It is topped with a pan sauce made from shallots, cornichons (little gherkin pickles), whole grain mustard, chicken broth, apple juice, and butter.  The dill flavor of the cornichons with the tarragon make this sauce amazing over the pork.  Combined, the flavor was stunning.

The recipe was easy to make.  This was made in about thirty minutes.  The hardest part of the recipe is thinly slicing the tiny cornichon pickles.  That took some intricate knife work.  Prep time was about fifteen minutes and cook time was about fifteen minutes as well.

I found this recipe in the November 2008 issue of Bon Appetit.  This recipe makes four servings.  The cost per serving is $2.17.  Total cost is $8.69.  This recipe won the contest for a permanent place in my recipe box.

I paired this wine with 2008 Reeder Mesa Colorado Riesling. The wine has an off dry flavor that is typical of an Alsatian style Riesling.  The slight acidity in the wine contrasted the dill in the cornichons and complemented the pork. The wine is enjoyable with or without food.

CLICK HERE FOR THE THE RECIPE