Pork – Page 3 – The Pajama Chef

A Tropical Dinner

April 5, 2011June 11, 2011 Sarah

So, I know this dinner doesn’t look like much. But it tastes like a million bucks… like a trip to the tropics! Except much, much cheaper, albiet not as relaxing or as fun considering the recent springtime rain we’ve been experiencing here. 🙂

Succulent pork topped with a sweet and tangy pineapple glaze, paired with the nutty, refreshing flavor of toasted coconut-infused rice…. incredible! This dinner whips up in a flash and is great for a quick weeknight. It definitely satisfied our desire for vacation, and hope it does the same for you too! [Well, maybe not our need for vacation, but our need to get away for a moment… even if just for dinner!

**Don’t forget to enter my Chobani giveaway before Saturday!

Sweet and Tangy Pork Chops with Pineapple [from Robin to the Rescue by Robin Miller]

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
4 pork chops
freshly ground black pepper
8 ounce can crushed pineapple, undrained
2/3 cup orange juice
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Directions:

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Season the pork chops with pepper, then sear each side in hot skillet for about 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown.

In a medium bowl, whisk together pineapple, orange juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, and cornstarch, stirring until cornstarch dissolves. Add mixture to pan with pork chops. Cover and let cook for about 5 minutes more, until pork is fully cooked and sauce has thickened.

Coconut Toasted Rice [from Robin to the Rescue by Robin Miller]

Ingredients:

1/4 cup unsweetened coconut
1 teaspoon honey
1 cup white or brown rice, uncooked
one 14 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk

Directions:

Toast coconut in a dry medium saucepan set over medium heat for about 3-5 minutes, or until coconut is golden brown. Stir frequently to prevent burning. Add the rice, honey, and coconut milk, then bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 15 minutes for white rice or 45 minutes for brown rice, until rice is soft and fluffy. Fluff with a fork before serving.

Click here for the printable version: A Tropical Dinner

Main Dishes, Pork, Recipes

Pork Chops with Red Wine Sauce

January 13, 2011January 26, 2016 Sarah

You have GOT to try this recipe. I don’t care if you never make any other recipe from my blog ever. If you make one thing, make these pork chops. They are just that good. Your life will be infinitely better. I promise. If you’re a vegetarian–no excuses either, because you can make just the sauce and be happy with your life, too. Just cook some tofu or beans up in a ‘lil olive oil in lieu of the pork chops and proceed as planned. And plan to love ’em.

This may be my new favorite way to eat pork, especially because it’s an easy company recipe. Though it looks complex, it’s real quite simple to make and it is so flavorful. Now, I’m not normally a red wine kinda gal, but this red wine sauce is sweet, the tang of the wine balanced out by the plump dried fruit. The sauce was so good I was eating it by the spoonful! Served atop tender, juicy pork, this is a meal not to be missed. Enjoy!

Pork Chops with Red Wine Sauce

Servings: 4
Time: 30 minutes
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simplified from Martha Stewart Living, February 2004

Ingredients:

4 pork chops
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup dry red wine
1 3/4 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups assorted dried fruits [Martha suggests pitted prunes, apricots, and cherries; we used about 1 cup apricots + 1/2 cup orange flavored cranberries]

Directions:

In a small bowl, combine flour, pepper, and cinnamon. Set aside 2 tablespoons. On a plate or in a shallow baking dish, sprinkle mixture over pork chops, turning to coat. Brush off extra. Pour oil in a large skillet over medium heat.When oil is hot, add pork chops and brown until they are cooked through. Be sure to watch them so they don’t dry out or burn. Transfer pork chops to a [clean] plate or baking dish. Turn heat up to high, then add wine and cook to deglaze pan, constantly scraping up the brown bits. In a measuring cup, whisk together chicken broth with flour mixture, then pour into skillet. While constantly stirring, slowly add dried fruit to pan and cook until sauce has thickened, approximately 15 minutes. If desired, after about 12-13 minutes, add the pork chops back to the pan to warm up for a couple minutes before serving.

Question of the Day: Do you have a favorite “company” dinner?

Main Dishes, Pork, Recipes

Blackberry Mustard Marinade

November 23, 2010June 11, 2011 Sarah

Even though I’m not a big meat-lover like my husband, I still enjoy it. Before we were married, my main staple meat dishes were lasagna, meatloaf, tacos, and grilled chicken or chicken cooked with ranch dressing and BBQ sauce. Tasty, right? Umm… no, not so much anymore. Since getting married, I have come to embrace more diverse meat dishes, and have become more experimental in cooking [instead of just with baking, as before]. One of these “more diverse meat dishes” is what I affectionately call, the big hunk of meat. Pork or beef, it doesn’t matter. To me, a big hunk of meat is the same amount of work [and I’m sure this is blasphemous to some–tastes the same], no matter what type it is. So, in order to flavor up the meat, I’ve taken to some experimental marinades, using what we have in the pantry and fridge, instead of buying a pre-mixed marinade or a lot of complex ingredients. Fruit and mustard sauces are a classic counterpart to pork, since they play off each other so well. This blackberry mustard marinade is really simple and really tasty. Feel free to mix up the type of preserves or mustard used, but try to stay with good quality ingredients because that’s what really adds the depth of flavor.

Blackberry Mustard Marinade

Ingredients:

1/4 cup good quality, all-natural blackberry preserves
1/4 cup good quality, grainy Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon dried sage
1 tablespoon dried rosemary

Directions:

Whisk together all ingredients and rub on a 1 1/2-2 pound pork roast, and prepare as desired. Here’s what I did.

I chopped two apples into slices and laid them out in the bottom of a crock pot, and covered them with 1 cup of water.
I rubbed the marinade on the pork roast and seasoned the whole thing with a generous amount of freshly ground black pepper.
Then, I cooked the whole pork roast on low for about 8 hours until it was so tender it fell to pieces! Delicious! You could also use the marinade to cook the pork in the oven in a roaster.

Click here for the printable version: Blackberry Mustard Marinade

Question of the Day: How do you feel about ‘big hunks of meat’? [sorry, vegetarians!]

Main Dishes, Pork, Recipes

Sweet and Spicy Blueberry Pork

September 23, 2010December 8, 2015 Sarah

Boy, am I loving the crock pot lately. School has been busy lately, and I’m trying to clean out the freezer, which means that big hunk ‘o pork shoulder needed to be eaten. Pronto. Since I don’t like to leave the crock pot on during the day when we were gone, I made this up on a Sunday after we got home from church. It cooked away all afternoon until dinnertime, and then we had a delicious, no-work dinner waiting for us at our leisure. I didn’t use to like the crock pot because it felt like cheater cooking, but for some things, like hunks ‘o meat, it’s just way easier than slaving over a hot oven. 🙂

This pork literally fell apart on it’s own; it was so tender. The flavors were sweet and a little spicy because of the cumin and the sweet chili sauce, with a hint of blueberry in each bite. A little bit of summer, a little bit of fall. A lot of flavor. And it’s really easy too.

Oh hey… I got a new hair cut, p.s. That’s all.

Sweet and Spicy Blueberry Pork

Servings: 6-8
Time: 8 hours
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by me 🙂

Ingredients:

1 cup blueberries [I used frozen blueberries from the freezer that we picked earlier in the summer.]
1/3 cup sweet chili sauce [I got mine from Trader Joe’s and it contains red chili, sugar, water, garlic, and salt if you need ingredients as a reference.]
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon dried cilantro
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2-2 pound pork shoulder roast

Directions:

Place pork shoulder in a crock pot, then add all ingredients. Cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7-8. Shred pork shoulder with two forks, then serve over brown rice or in a tortilla.

Are you a crock pot fan? Why or why not?

Main Dishes, Pork, Recipes

Sweet Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops

July 26, 2010December 5, 2014 Sarah

Last night for dinner we had some fabulous grilled pork chops. I’m not sure if I’ve ever had grilled pork chops before, but I have a feeling we will be grilling them more often from now on. Yum! I’m not exactly sure where I found the recipe that I adapted for this meal–somewhere in the newspaper, I believe–but it sure was a tasty meal!

Sweet Mustard-Glazed Pork Chops

Servings: 4
Time: 15 minutes + overnight marination
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Ingredients:

4 pork chops
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons spicy brown mustard

Directions:

Combine the brown sugar, pepper, onion powder, and paprika and rub the mixture on both sides of pork chops. Cover and refrigerate overnight [I let mine sit for about 22 hours]. The next day, combine honey and mustard and set aside. Grill pork chops [husband used the George Foreman] until they are approaching desired doneness, then brush on glaze for last minute or so of cooking.