Pork Chops Stuffed with Gruyere, Green Apple and Walnuts with Sunchoke Puree

I saw that my local market had sunchokes and I have never used them in my cooking before so I gave it a shot. I went home and looked at my 'Produce Bible' to learn about these weird looking things. If they hadn't said 'Sunchokes' on them in big letters I would have easily mistaken them for fresh ginger. They look very simular. So, after reading up on my new friend, I decided that I would just wing it and puree it and serve something on top. I decided that stuffed pork chops sounded pretty good and I knew that Drew loved them so that's the genisis of last nights dinner...

Sunchoke Puree
1 bag of Sunchokes
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup of chicken stock
1 shallot, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon sage

Scrub sunchokes with vegetable brush. Boil in hot water for about 20 minutes, strain. In a seperate pan, add 1 tablespoon of butter, shallots and garlic and saute until they are translucent about 2 minutes. Add garlic, shallots and sunchokes in food processer and puree in batches while adding chicken stock and dried sage. Season with salt and peper. Can be made ahead and reheated.

Pork Chops
1 granny smith apple, cored and chopped
1/2 cups of walnuts, chopped
1/4 of gruyere, chopped
2 pork chops
2 fresh sage leaves

Preheat over to 350 degrees. Cut slit in the side of the pork and create a 'pocket' in the meat. Stuff each with equal parts apple, walnuts and greyer. Sear on high heat on each side about 3 minutes until brown in over safe pan. Pop pan into oven and bake chops for 12-14 minutes. You want the meat to be a little pink but not too pink. Juices should run clear.

Ladle hot sunchoke puree on plate and place pork chop on top. Garnish pork with left over walnuts, apples and cheese. Enjoy!

Pork Chops Stuffed with Gruyere, Green Apple and Walnuts with Sunchoke Puree