Friday, March 6, 2009

Fun With Pork

Alexis brought home a nice 9+ pound whole pork loin tonight. In case you haven't figured it out, we like buying larger cuts of meat at cheaper prices and then break them down into smaller cuts myself. I cut this loin into two pork roasts and then a half dozen thick boneless pork chops all for less that $2 a lb.

But the 7th chop, the very last one looked pitiful. He didn't have the form to be a proud chop on the grill. He was a little fatty here and there. More scraps than anything. So I decided to have some fun. I cut it up into 4 or 5 chunks, trimmed off the fattier pieces and pounded thin with a meat mallet into cutlets. By the time we were done, we had cut up 2 more of the chops having fun with the following versions of tasty, tender pork cutlets. Sides? Ummmmm we were just snacking on scraps:)

The basic process was
1) season both sides of cutlets
2) saute 1-2 minutes per side
3) deglaze with a liquid
4) toss the cutlets around in the resulting sauce and eat!

First version:
Seasoned with pork bbq rub & pepper, deglazed with lemon juice.

Second version:
Seasoned with just kosher salt & pepper, deglazed with balsamic vinegar.

Third version:
Seasoned with kosher salt, pepper, & basil, deglazed with veggie broth.

Fourth version:
Seasoned with salt & pepper, deglazed with Triple Sec (orange cordial liquor)

Fifth verson:
Seasoned with salt, pepper, a cherry BBQ rub, deglazed with Triple Sec.

We were going to try a batch with raspberry-chipolte glaze but we were full by then.

We were cranking these out as fast as we could to feed the 4 of us. All of them were great but my favorites were the first and last versions. I think the it was so much fun because we weren't trying to "make dinner". We were just trying to use scraps up, so it was a random "Hey, let's try this".

I will really be cooking something tomorrow night but this was fun tonight even if it was just goofing around.

Speaking of goofing around, here is the most disturbing yet entertaining in an "I just accidentally took 2 hits of acid" kind of way, video about pork. I found it posted at Dr. Zibbs months ago, but it still cracks me up. Enjoy.