Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Puree & Black Bean Sauce

This dish had a great flavor to it! I thought it tasted a little more Mexican than Latin (it is from the Pampered Chef Latin Flavor cookbook), but also I haven't had much experience with Latin food. The sauce was delicious! The recipe calls for prepared recaito, which according to the cookbook is "a cooking base that usually consists of onion, garlic, olive oil, peppers and green herbs. It is used to season soups, stews, beans and rice." I couldn't find any recaito, but I did find sofrito (by Goya) in Harris Teeter. The description on the bottle is almost exactly the same as what the cookbook says recaito is. It really added a lot to the dish!

The sweet potato puree was so yummy! And the flavor of the sweet potato paired really well with the flavor of the sauce. The puree calls for crema agria, but you can substitute that with sour cream, which is what I did.

Overall, the recipe didn't take too much effort to put together and it was really tasty! It yields 6 servings, so I just cut everything down to make only 2 servings. The sauce KIND of reminded me of the sauce packets you get at Taco Bell, but it tasted better than that! All of the parts of the dish paired really well together! And I imagine you could use chicken if you didn't want to use pork chops. I bet that would be quite delicious!

Pork Chops with Sweet Potato Puree & Black Bean Sauce
Pampered Chef Latin Flavor
Published by The Pampered Chef, Ltd. in 2008.

Prep time: 17 minutes  Total time: 35 minutes  Yield: 6 servings

Puree
1 1/2 lbs sweet potatoes, peeled
4 cups water
2 tsp salt
1/3 cup crema agria
2 tbsp buter

Pork and Sauce
1 tbsp vegetable oil
6 boneless pork loin chops, cut 1/2-3/4 in. thick (4-6 oz each)
Sat and coarsely ground black pepper
3 garlic cloves, pressed
1 tbsp butter
1 tsp ground cumin
3/4 cup chicken broth
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained and rinsed, divided
1/3 cup prepared recaito
1/4 cup coarsely chopped fresh cilantro

1. For puree, cut potatoes into 1/4-in. slices. Place potatoes, water and salt into Large Micro-Cooker. Microwave, covered, on high 14-16 minutes or until tender; drain. Cool 2 minutes. Add crema and butter; mix well. Cover; microwave 1-3 minutes or until hot.
2. For pork, in (12-in.) Skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat 1-3 minutes or until shimmering. Season pork with salt and pepper. Cook pork 8-10 minutes or until internal temperature registers 155°F, turning once. Set pork aside; tent with foil (temperature will rise to 160°F).
3. For sauce, cook garlic, butter and cumin in (1.5-qt.) Saucepan over medium heat 3-4 minutes or until fragrant. Add broth; simmer 2 minutes. In blender, blend broth mixture, 3/4 cup of the beans and recaito until smooth. Press sauce through Strainer into Small Batter Bowl. Serve pork with puree, sauce, remaining beans and cilantro.