Pork chop in almonds, bar berries and saffron

Oh! It's so good! Like Heaven! My friend cooked a Persian stuffed chicken dish at my visit. The stuffing is a mix of onion, rice, almonds and bar berries fried with saffron. The stuffing is so good that I keep wanting to do it myself. Here is my first attempt, inspired by Firoozeh's recipe. This is such a fun time for me to try out slicing up re-hydrated raw almonds and grounding mustard seeds. It's really exciting!

Recipe: Almond barberry pork chop (for 2)

Ingredients:
- 2 lean pork chops, 3/4" thick
- cumin
- garlic powder
Side
- 1/4 cup raw dried almonds, soaked overnight
- 1 TB bar berries, soaked for 1/2 hour and drained
- 1/2 small onion, thinly sliced
- 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
- 1/4 cup cooked chickpeas, drained
- juice of a lime (optional)
- 1/4 tp saffron, soaked in hot water for 1/2 hour or more
- 2 TB oil for cooking the side
- 1/2 tp salt
- 1/2 tp sugar
coating
- 1/2 tp freshly ground mustard seeds
- 1 tp olive oil

Procedure:
To prepare the side:
1. Peel the soaked raw almonds. Then slice them thinly.
2. Fry chopped onion and garlic in oil. Add sliced almonds and drained bar berries to the pan. Stir to fry for a minute or so. Add chickpeas, salt and sugar. Allow to fry until fragrant. Add saffron water. Continue frying to bring out the aroma of the saffron. Set aside when done.
3. Sprinkle garlic powder and cumin powder on pork chop and brown both sides.
4. Place pork chop in a baking pan. Spread the side ingredients on top and in the gaps. Cover with foil. Bake at 275F for about 1 to 1.5 hours. During the baking, the pork chops will give out a lot of water. Uncover when that happens. Turn heat off. Allow the pan to sit in the oven until the water slowly dries off by half.
5. When the water dries off by half, flip the pork chops and let the almonds, onions, etc be at the bottom of the pan to be hydrated by the liquid.
6. Mix freshly ground mustard seeds with olive oil. Brush on top of the pork chops. Allow the pork chops to be heated in oven at 275F for 5 minutes.
7. Serve hot. Sprinkle lime juice on top when served.

Wow! So yummy! The pork has a fine flavor of spices while the side ingredients are very rich in the flavor of saffron and seasonings. We finished all of it, to the very last bit.