Yummy pork chops with fall veggies
I recently decided to create my own blog and make it about what I like to cook at home. I get my inspiration from everything. I particularly enjoy browsing many colorful pictures (yes, pictures and not all are of the food) to envision what the next meal will be like.
My passion is to transform anything decadent into a healthy meal and yesterday I saw a couple of very beautiful looking Frenched pork chops. Frenched? Well, that's the bone in pork chop, but the bone is cleaned up and exposed. I haven't had a pork chop before nor have I made one, but I do know how to cook pork. In order to avoid the first timer cooking mistakes I am relying on my bag of tricks. I got home and decided to marinade the chops so that they will be plump and juicy after I grill them. The chop has a piece of loin meat, which if not cooked correctly, can dry out. I want to avoid dry meat and so a food proof way is to marinade.
Marinade:
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
1 tablespoon Clover Honey
1/2 cup Low Sodium Vegetable Broth
1/2 to 1/3 cup water
1/4 cup Light Rice Vinegar
1 teaspoon Soy Sauce
Mix well together in a zip lock bag (you can taste your marinade now and imagine how delicious the chops will be), place pork chops in the bag (I bought 2 of them weighing about 2/3 of a pound and about and inch thick), squeeze as much air out as possible so that marinade can work its wonders, and place in the fridge overnight. Before grilling the chops, I will remove them from the fridge, pat dry them, and let them sit on the counter for 15-20 minutes to remove the chill. This way I will ensure that they cook evenly and develop a grill marks.
What will I serve with the chops? Lots of roasted veggies. I have some very nice looking Brussels Sprouts (I will halve them), red and orange bellow peppers, green Cauliflower, and broccolini, and some small cherry tomatoes. It will be best to cut up all the veggies into the similar size for even cooking. The oven will be pre-heated to 375 F, I will coat the roasting pan with the non-stick foil and lightly spay it with a cooking spray. Then I will toss in the veggies (at this point I will not season them at all), spay them a bit more with the cooking spray. They will all roast together for about 25 minutes (but I will keep my eye on them to make sure I don't burn them).
About half way through the veggies, I will heat my stove top grill on a medium high heat (that's equivalent of 475 F in the oven and it will take about 5 minutes for the grill to heat up on the stovetop). Spraying the grill will some cooking spray will ensure that the meat doesn't stick but use the high heat veriety, it is time to cook the chops. Cook them about 1.5 minutes on each side. Then reduce the heat to low and cover the chops with foil to trap the heat in. The one inch thick chop needs about 8-10 minutes to cook through to the internal temperature of 150 F. Because I have a thermometer, I will use it to check doneness. When I am done cooking the chops, I will remove them from the heat and set them aside to rest and redistribute its juices.
In the meantime, I will take the veggies out from the oven and toss them with fresh herbs like oregano and sage (finely minced) and a pinch of salt. It will be delicious and it will be healthy!
Well, I will write again to tell you how my new experiment went.
FoodInspired
