I bought luscious Black Mission figs for this at the Farmers Market, but then I let Ross eat them all as a snack. So I had to buy figs at Safeway, and all they had were the green Kadotas. But shockingly they were pretty good figs, even from Safeway.

I have no idea where this recipe came from, it's scribbled on a scrap of paper- but I changed it a lot from the paper scrap version because it had what I perceived to be too much sugar and too many unnecessary steps.

For a side dish, you want something that can sop up the yummy sauce. I sauteed finely chopped mushrooms with thyme and mixed them into couscous for an easy and fast side dish, but mashed potatoes would be good too.




Pork with Balsamic Figs
This is pretty fast, as well as easy- start to finish, around 20 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 4 thin-cut, bone-in pork chops
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 T butter
• 4-6 fresh figs, cut in quarters
• 2 T balsamic vinegar
• 1/3 cup beef broth
• 1 T brown sugar
• salt and pepper

Method:

• Season pork chops liberally with salt and pepper on both sides.
• Heat olive oil and cook the pork chops on high heat, 2-3 minutes per side. Remove to platter.
• Put butter in pan and melt. Saute figs a few minutes, until a little browned. Remove from pan.
• Add balsamic vinegar, broth, and sugar to pan. Cook on medium until reduced and a little thicker. Season with salt and pepper.
• Add figs back to pan for a minute. Pour sauce and figs over pork and serve immediately.