Guinness Glazed Pork Chops with Irish Colcannon

So many food bloggers have already jumped on the bandwagon with St. Patrick's Day recipes-- and I have to say that I've been busy pinning them on Pinterest.  One of my most trusted source of tried-and-true recipes is from Cathy of Wives With Knives.  Cathy shared her recipe for Colcannon, which is  different version of what I've made in the past.  If you've never had Colcannon, it's simply mashed potatoes with either cooked cabbage or green kale mixed in.  My version has always used kale, but Cathy's recipe uses cabbage, green onion and bacon.

It's a very simple recipe to make, and I didn't need to follow her recipe with measurements. I just sliced bacon and cooked it until golden, added green onion, then thinly sliced green cabbage-- while I made my version of mashed potatoes.

Then, I simply added the cooked cabbage mixture to the potatoes and...

delicious Colcannon.  You can view Cathy's recipe on her blog here.

I wasn't exactly sure what I would make to go with the Colcannon.  Yesterday morning, as I turned on my computer at work, my Google Browser displayed the Epicurious Recipe of the Day (which also inspired me to make the Peach Glazed Brisket).  Today's recipe was for Guinness Glazed Lamb Chops.  I'm not a fan of dark beer, but since Guinness is made in Dublin, and St. Patrick's Day is just around the corner-- it seemed a perfect choice for me to experiment with.   I was intrigued about using Guinness to make a glaze.  I had whole coriander and black pepper at home, so I thought I'd give it a go. 

As soon as I arrived home, from work, I popped a can of Guinness, crushed some coriander and pepper and added that to 1/2 cup of brown sugar.

Per the recipe, I let this simmer for about 20 minutes, which gave me time to prepare the Colcannon.

I like to mark a wooden spoon, with a rubberband, so show where the liquid started. As you can see, the beer did reduce to about half, in 20 minutes.

The liquid did reduce to almost a syrup, and was strained.

I felt that the glaze wasn't quite thick enough, to my liking, so I return it to a boil-- for about five minutes.

There we are!  A thick syrup, which I divided into two separate bowls.

No, these aren't lamb chops.  My husband doesn't love lamb as much as I do.  So, I settled for bone-in pork chops, seasoned with salt & pepper.  The syrup really thickened as it cooled, so be forewarned to keep it slightly warm-- if you can.  I broiled these about 6" below the broiler for about 5 minutes each- to about 140F, which is perfect for us.

Ah, yes, an Irish-Themed Dinner, if I do say so myself. Unfortunately, I didn't have time to "food-style" with Green or decorations. After all, this is  a work  night for me!  I did, however, drizzle the extra glaze over the chops. 

TASTING NOTES:  The flavor of the glaze was surprisingly good.  The brown sugar gave a slight sweetness to the glaze-- but not over-the--top, and the Guinness imparted a bit of a molasses flavor.  Craig and I really liked the glaze-- a lot.  I would definitely make this again, and I'd love to try this on some rib lamb chops.  

I still have one more recipe I hope to make for St. Patrick's Day. Only, this one does have lamb in it and I am sure my husband will love it.  The lamb stew with potatoes and barley was outstanding, and you can view the recipe here.

A printable recipe card is at the end of this post, or you can view it on Key Ingredient here.