Cocoa & Chile Rubbed Pork Chops
The recipe for the pork chops can be found in the current
issue (June, 2009) of Food & Wine magazine (p. 67).
Essentially, after letting the pork chops soak in a
mixture of water, kosher salt, and crushed red pepper for
an hour, they are then brushed with olive oil and coated
in a mixture of brown sugar, cocoa, and ancho chili
powder before being put on the grill. I could not find
the ancho chili powder at Kroger. So I went to the local
Hispanic grocery to find it. I was quite proud of myself
for looking up a Spanish word before I got to the market.
The young woman behind the counter spoke no English, but
when she understood "ancho," she led me to whole dried
ancho peppers. I shook my head and quickly said, "polvo"
(powder) and she smiled and handed me just what I needed.