Wednesday, 22 July 2009

Oh my Pork (Chops)!

I was looking for something to accompany my caribbean salad and I thought some sweet pork would do the trick. I'm getting seriously into pork. It's been out of fashion for many years, but I know it will have a massive renaissance, and I'm willing to make a bet that if you try this recipe you will agree with me that pork can be up there with any of the other meats. And to top it off, it's really cheap. I paid 2 euros for the two chops you will see below, I wouldn't get any other meat for that price. How is that for an economical meal.
Ingredients:
2 pork chops (aprx. 500g)
Marinade
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp dijon mustard
2 tsp basil oil (olive oil blended with frsh basil)
1 clove garlic minced

Fleur de sel (or any quality sea salt)
Fresh black pepper

Mix the ingredients for the marinade.

Brush the chops on both sides and put them in a plastic bag. Pour over the remaining marinade. Put in the fridge for 24 hours.

Take the chops out 30 minutes before cooking. Dry them off lightly with a paper towel. Put them on a very hot grill with a bit of olive oil.

After a minute or two, turn them 90 degrees. This is only for creating a nice grill pattern. If you are frying on a pan, don't bother. Turn the heat down and fry them until you can see the meat has turned colour half way up the meat on the side.

Flip the chops over. Turn them again 90 degrees after a couple of minutes . When the juices start to come out on top they are done. You can also carefull cut down a bit and open it up to see if it's done. You want it slightly undercooked.

Then take them off the heat and wrap them with the two hot sides against eachother in tin foil. Wait 3 minutes. Turn the package over. Wait 3 more minutes. There's plenty of residual heat to finish cooking the pork. This way they get really tender and juice. Overcooking them dries them out. Finish them off with sprinkling some fresh black pepper and fleyr de sel.

And here is the final result served along with the caribbean salad, which by the way turned out deliciously full of flavour. It's very summery and would go equally well with grilled fish or beef.

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