One-Pan Wonder

It was a good fluke. I had four medium-sized potatoes, a head of cabbage, thin-sliced porkchops, and a red onion. In my head I ran through the possible cooking methods pairing these ingredients together. Whatever it was going to be, it was going to be Eastern European. I don't want to claim that I can cook German food, or Polish for that matter, because I can't. Like I said, it was a fluke.

I sliced the cabbage, potatoes, and onion all into thin strips (a little bigger for the cabbage, smaller for the onion, so everything cooked evenly). I also diced four cloves of garlic, because garlic = love.

Turner browned the chops in a frying pan over high heat and then removed them and moved aside so I could cook the vegetables. I first sauteed the onion over low heat until it softened, then added the garlic and fried together for a bit. In went the potato to soften a bit along with a cup of chicken stock and some fennel. After spreading that evenly over the pan, I dumped in the cabbage and placed the pork chops on top of that. The layers were covered with a lid and the heat turned down to low for everything to simmer. The cabbage cooks down and the pork chops cook through in about 20-30 minutes. (I forgot to time it.) Everything gets salt and pepper at its appropriate cooking stage (when it is the focus of the pan).

What came out at the end were tender chops and soft cabbage and potatoes in a sauce that, were there more, would make a fabulous soup. This was a great meal to finish out a long rainy day, and I would definitely make it again as it is a one-pan wonder.