Braised Red Cabbage, Pork Chops and Mashed Cauliflower

I'll admit up front that this is a bit ambitious for a weeknight.  But when you have a craving you have to find a way to fix it.

Here's what I've got on-hand and will pull this together. 
1 head red/purple cabbage
Cinnamon Stick
Cloves (whole)
Brown Sugar
White Vinegar (or apple cider vinegar - I dunno yet)
1 Apple, sliced thin
1 Bay Leaf
1 Onion
2-3 thick, boneless pork chops
1 head cauliflower

Heat oven to 350
** Make sure you have two racks - one close to the bottom with enough room to fit your saute pan with the pork chops and then one above it where the Dutch Oven will sit with your cabbage. **

Start with the cabbage - just slice it thin and then rough chop it in the other direction so you get smallish pieces. 
In a Dutch Oven over med/high heat, saute the onion until soft & translucent.  Add the cabbage and cook for about 10 min until it's starting to soften.  Add in the Bay Leaf, 8-10 Whole Cloves (you could pop those into a cheesecloth sachet if you're so inclined - but I'll just pick 'em out later), Cinnamon Stick and the sliced apple and allow them to all heat through and get hot.  Then add the vinegar (about 1/3 cup) and about 1/4 cup of brown sugar.  If that's not enough liquid to keep the cabbage sitting in about 3/4' of liquid add in some apple juice (or chicken broth or water - I just happen to have a 6 yr old so I have apple juice).  Pop the lid on and stick the whole thing in the oven.  It should cook at least 30 minutes but could conceivably cook for hours and only get better.  (hmmm - note to self, try this in a crockpot some time!!)

Take a moment to clean your cauliflower and chop it into florets that will be easy to mash.  Looks don't matter.  You'll steam it to fork tender and then mash it when the pork is in the oven. 

Now to the pork: trim any fat, make sure the surfaces are dry then sprinkle each side with salt & pepper then drizzle with olive oil.   In a HOT (oven proof!) saute pan, sear the first side until it's brown and pulling back from the pan.  Flip the chops and then put in a meat thermometer and pop the whole thing into the oven.   (NOTE:  You could TOTALLY sear the second side and then add the pork & any accumulated drippings to the cabbage.  It would taste terrific but my family doesn't love this meal the way I do and they'd prefer to not have their pork turn purple.)

While the pork is cooking, steam the cauliflower until fork tender.  Remove from heat and put the cauliflower into a food processor with about 1 TB of butter and LOTS of salt & pepper.  Pulse it until it looks like mashed potatoes (you may have to scrape down the sides a couple of times).   If you like you could add some milk (or cream or sour cream or cream cheese) for texture & richness. 

By this point, about 30 or so minutes should have passed.  You can set aside the cauliflower (or put it into a casserole dish and keep it warm in the oven) if you're off on time (I sometimes guess wrong at these things). 

When the meat hits the right temp, just pull it out and allow to rest about 5 min before you slice it.  I serve the sliced pork on a bed of cauliflower with a bowl of the cabbage.  But you could totally put the pork right with the cabbage & it'd be great. 

mmmm.... cannot wait for dinner.