Weird Pork Dish

I was hunting around my favorite recipe website for a good pork recipe and I found this:

Asian Pork Tenderloin Fallom

Before you go getting all excited about what a "Fallom" is, I'll tell you that it the last name of the author of the recipe.  Sounds like a cake or something.

Now, if we can move past your disappointment...
This was one of my first experiences cooking with alcohol.  Of course I've made the odd recipe with beer here and there, but never much with liquor.

I trekked over to the Kroger liquor store in Hyde Park and bought a bottle of Brandy. 
Here is a picture of it with some apricot preserves, also used in the recipe:

Before we get to the Brandy portion of this recipe, though, we need to get the meat into a marinade.

This recipe called for several ingredients I didn't have on hand.  Chinese Five Spice powder has been on my grocery list for a while since I kept running across it in recipes.  The oyster sauce wasn't really what I was expecting.  I couldn't find anything more authentic then 'oyster flavored sauce' which sounds absolutely disgusting. 

But I had to make due.  Since I didn't have a clue what it tasted like, I couldn't use a substitute.  BTW, oyster flavored sauce has the consistency of barbeque sauce mixed with maple syrup.  I was afraid to smell it.

While the pork was marinading, I made these:

Those were pot stickers.  I cooked and ate a couple, then put the rest in the freezer for a later engagement.

After the pork marinated for a couple episodes (Time measured in episodes of Law & Order: SVU), I dredged the pork in white flour and cooked for a bit too long on each side.

You can't really tell its too long from this picture.  But you can really tell in the end.
Here is a picture of the mixture served over the pork.  A combination of Brandy, apricot preserves, and shiitake mushrooms.

After it cooks a while, you add some heavy cream.  Here is a picture of the finished product, just before plating.  See how it looks a little burnt?  Whoops....

Luckily if you put some of the sauce over the top, you can't really tell that the top bits are burnt at all.

Voila:

Final Verdict:  It was tasty enough that I ate all three of the pork chops within a couple days.  I might make the dish one more time with some alterations just to see if I can make it spectacular.  As written its not amazing.