Fruit Glazed Pork Chops

The Japanese maple in the yard bare and stark. Amazon this week. Sprint planning Tuesday. Two hours of meetings I could have been a Slack message.

Hana, 1, a small loud animal. She mostly eats rice and bananas. Jisoo FaceTimed Tuesday. We made doenjang jjigae together — me in Wallingford, her in Haeundae. Eleven thousand miles. The same soup.

Kimchi jjigae Sunday. Aged kimchi, pork belly, tofu, scallions. The week's spine.

Drove to Bellevue Saturday. Karen was tired. I brought soft food. She ate.

I drank tea on the porch in the rain. Standard Seattle. The kitchen warm behind me.

James and I had date night Friday. Indian restaurant on 45th. We ate too much. We sat in the car after talking about nothing for an hour. The marriage is the marriage.

The kimchi crock was bubbling Saturday morning when I checked. The bubbling is the right bubbling. The fermentation knew what it was doing.

The Capitol Hill apartment kitchen is small. We make it work.

I read a thread on the Korean Adoptee subreddit Saturday. Some posts brought up old anger. Most are people figuring it out in real time. We are not unique. We are a community.

Reading at night. A novel by a Korean-American writer about a family in 1990s LA. I underlined four sentences. The underlining is the marking-of-the-territory of the soul.

Sunday farmers market on Wallingford Avenue. The kabocha at the Asian vendor's stall. The shishito peppers. The brokered conversation. We bought too much. We always do.

Sprint review at Amazon Friday. Two hours. I could have been on a podcast.

The shiso on the south fence is fragrant and unruly. I brushed past it taking the compost out and the smell stopped me. The smell is the country. The smell is Jisoo's apartment.

Rain on the porch all afternoon Saturday. The Wallingford rain is its own weather. I sat with a book and a tea and did not move for two hours.

The newsletter went out Sunday morning. The opening sentence took an hour. The piece took five. The piece was what it needed to be.

My Korean is improving. Slowly. Painfully. Conversationally adequate now. I can argue about kimchi proportions in two languages, which is a milestone in any marriage between mother and daughter.

A blog reader wrote about her own adoptee experience. We exchanged three emails this week.

David came over for Sunday dinner. He brought some tomatoes from the Bellevue garden.

Jisoo sent a photo of the dol the kids did for our visit last summer. The photo went on the fridge.

I texted Jisoo a photo of the kimchi in the new onggi pot. She replied with the thumb-up emoji and a Korean-language critique. The duality is the gift.

I made coffee at seven. Hana ate cereal at seven-fifteen. Min wandered down at seven-twenty-five. James left for work at eight. The morning was the morning. The standard.

I sat at the kitchen counter at six AM with a notebook and a cup of green tea. Writing time before the house wakes. The pre-light hour is the only writing hour I trust.

Therapy Tuesday with Dr. Kim. We talked about the parents — the two sets, the one living, the one gone, the one who became real after thirty years and the one who was real my whole life and is now gone. The work is the layered work.

Hana left a Lego on the kitchen floor. I stepped on it at two AM. Standard.

Yoga Tuesday morning at the studio. The forward fold released something I had been carrying in the shoulder. The mat is the mat.

Pork belly went into the kimchi jjigae on Sunday and that pot was the spine, the anchor, the thing that made the week feel held together — but by Wednesday the jjigae was gone and the week still had two days left in it. These fruit glazed pork chops are what I make when I need that same quality of warmth and substance but don’t have aged kimchi on hand and don’t have the patience for a long braise. The sweet-savory glaze hits something similar in the chest — not the same, but in the same family. Careful cooking, simple ingredients, a result that tastes more considered than the time it takes.

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4

Ingredients

4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick, 6–8 oz each)
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon neutral oil (such as canola or avocado oil)
1/2 cup apricot or peach preserves
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes (optional)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Fresh thyme or parsley, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

Season the chops. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels. Season both sides evenly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Let rest at room temperature for 5 minutes while you prepare the glaze.
Make the glaze. In a small bowl, whisk together the fruit preserves, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, crushed red pepper flakes (if using), and minced garlic until smooth. Set aside.
Sear the chops. Heat oil in a large skillet (cast iron or stainless) over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add pork chops and sear without moving for 3–4 minutes, until a golden crust forms. Flip and sear the other side for 2–3 minutes.
Glaze and finish. Reduce heat to medium-low. Pour the fruit glaze over the chops. Turn the chops once to coat. Cook for 3–5 minutes more, spooning glaze over the top occasionally, until the internal temperature reads 145°F and the glaze has thickened and caramelized around the edges.
Rest and serve. Remove chops from heat and add butter to the pan, swirling to incorporate into the pan sauce. Let chops rest 3 minutes before plating. Spoon remaining pan sauce over each chop. Garnish with fresh thyme or parsley if desired.

Nutrition (per serving)

Fruit Glazed Pork Chops — The Other Pork That Carries the Week