Red wine and sour cherry pan sauce

1/3 cup finely diced red onion
¼ cup dry red wine
¼ cup chicken stock or water
1/3 cup dried sour cherries
one 2-inch strip of lemon zest
1 tsp packed light brown sugar
½ tsp balsamic vinegar
½ tsp fresh thyme leaves
Salt and pepper
1tbsp butter, preferably unsalted, softened (optional)

After cooking steak, pork chops or chicken breasts, remove them to a platter and keep warm. Pour off all but 1tsp fat and heat over medium high heat. Add the onions and cook until just starting to soften and brown.
Add the wine, bring to a boil, stirring with a wooden spoon to loosen and dissolve any browned bits, and cook for 2-3 min.
Add stock, cherries, lemon zest, brown sugar, vinegar, and thyme. Cook stirring often over high heat until reduced by half and thickened, about 3 minutes. Discard the zest.
Season with salt and pepper, and swirl in the butter (if using).

This is just from plain old Joy of cooking. An underappreciated work horse of a book. I’d say that just about everybody that cooks in America has a copy of this book. I like to dip back into it from time to time.

I thought I’d try this one, because I made a balsamic and cherry dish before, and I wanted to know if a quick pan sauce would come out as well.

It was a really good sauce, and very easy. Just minutes from start to finish and you have a great way to make a boring old pork chop into a super fancy meal. It definitely gets points for that, and also for tasting so good.

It still didn’t move me the way the Chicken dish did, but it was a really wonderful sauce to have in you repetoire.