Saturday, August 7, 2010

Honey, lemon and oregano pork chops


I am so grateful for the wonderful inspiration I get from reading recipes on the blogs I follow. I mentioned once before that if I don’t comment on sweet things and baked goods, it’s simply because I don’t eat sweets (well, only rarely) and I don’t bake.

On Thursday, Jenn posted an excellent pork chop recipe. She didn’t have mint and substituted oregano – a good choice. I had basil (are you tired of me bragging about the garden?), which I chose to sub for the mint, then changed my mind and stuck with oregano. A word about my pork chops. I don’t remember how they were labeled (what cut, that is) because we bought them several weeks ago in a huge “value pack.” I divided them by 5 and froze the packages. Three of them are pictured below. They look pretty good as is, but trust me, they required a lot of trimming. After that and bone removal what was left was best for a quick sauté. That didn’t necessitate any change in marination.

The recipe is pretty much as Jenn posted it. I altered the amounts a bit to account for the amount of pork I had. In the end the taste was lemony with only the merest hint of sweetness from the honey. Here’s a pic of my favorite kitchen uni-tasker, a lime squeezer. It works with lemons if you cut the lemon into quarters to make it fit. It squeezes out some of the lemon pulp which I scraped into the marinade.
I’m in the limerick mood again.

I had a nice package of pork
And wanting to not be a dork,
I trimmed them
And cut them
To a size I could eat with a spork.

Honey, lemon and oregano pork chops
1 lb. pork cutlets, chops, or some such thing
1.5 tbsp honey
zest from 1 lemon
1.5 tbsp lemon juice (1/2 lemon)
1 ½ tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried oregano
salt and cayenne pepper to taste


Trim and cut up the pork as necessary depending on the cut. Place in a resealable bag. Combine all remaining ingredients (except butter) and pour over the pork. Marinate in the fridge for a few hours.
Heat a skillet over medium heat (4 on my 1-10 dial). Add butter to the pan. When it’s melted, add the pork pieces and sauté, turning a couple of times, until just barely pink in the center.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Wow, those chops looks so great. I can never find chops like that at my grocery store!! I have a lemon squeezer and it is my favorite kitchen tool too!! (go figure, we have the same taste in tools!)
I loved the simplicity of this dish and the lemon zing it had..it was so delicious!

Andrea the Kitchen Witch said...

These look delicious. I have an over abundance of oregano in teh garden that I need to use. I have a feeling this might be in my future!

I for one am not tired of hearing about the garden. My own is giving me zucchinis but that's about it, well herbs too.

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