Grilled Pork Chops with a Sherry Vinegar, Blood Orange, Harissa, Fresh Mint and Nicoise Olive Sauce

A week or so ago, Claudia of cookeatfret fame posted about a combination of foods that intrigued me. She used pita bread with green olives, goat cheese, dark wildflower honey and harissa and called this The Moroccan Trifecta. I followed her instructions and ate that for lunch.

I didn’t have pita bread, I had semolina.

It didn’t matter. It was spectacular.

We’ve eaten fish a lot in the past few weeks.

I was ready for a pork chop..bone in grilled out. I started thinking about Claudia’s post and the flavors involved and this wonderful sauce is the result, almost a vinaigrette but not quite.

Perfect to drizzle over the grilled pork chops…paired with baked sliced sweet potatoes drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and seasoned with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.

I left out the goat cheese. It didn’t need to be in this.

The name is a bit long.

My picture is not the best.

But the recipe is.

Sherry Vinegar, Blood Orange, Harissa, Fresh Mint and Nicoise Olive Sauce

1/3 cup sherry vinegar, reduced to less than a quarter cup
½ cup pitted sliced Nicoise olives
½ cups fresh mint, chiffonaded…which means rolled up and thinly sliced
2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp harissa
¼ cup blood orange juice or orange juice
1 tbsp grated zest of blood orange
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine in bowl and set aside.

Oven Baked Sweet Potatoes

Preheat oven to 400.
Cut one large sweet potato in half lengthwise and then cut into thick slices.
Drizzle with olive oil and season with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Probably takes 10-12 minutes if you pay attention!
Cook til golden brown.. flip once.

3 large bone-in pork chops seasoned with coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Grill the pork chops 6 per side.

But I must tell you, these were huge porkers.

And yes we ate every bite.

But it was Wednesday.

Serves 3.

Grilled Pork Chops with a Sherry Vinegar, Blood Orange, Harissa, Fresh Mint and Nicoise Olive Sauce