I have some cooking habits that I'm sure a lot of people would consider odd. One of the more peculiar ones involves the juice of canned fruit. Whenever I open a can of any fruit product, I drain the juice into a canning jar. Doesn't matter what it is... pineapple, pear, mixed fruit... it all goes in the jar. Whenever I need a sweet, fruity element for a marinade or other recipe, I hit up the juice jar. I only buy fruit canned in its own juices or light syrup, to reduce the amount of added sugar.
The day I came up with this recipe, I had some nice, thick-cut boneless pork chops and a fresh pineapple. Fresh pineapple is one of my favorite things, but there's no juice to add to a marinade! Juice jar to the rescue!! You can substitute straight pineapple (or even orange) juice in this recipe, because I'm pretty sure not everyone has a hoarded juice jar in their fridge. Yet.
These chops came out so incredibly tender and juicy, we hardly even needed a knife to cut them! And if you've never had grilled pineapple before, you're in for a treat.
Served with brown jasmine rice and peas with sesame dressing.
1/3 C brown sugar
1/2 C Italian dressing
1/3 C fruit juice
1/3 C soy sauce
1 T sesame oil
1 t powdered ginger
1 t chili garlic paste (or more, to taste)
several dashes Mekong seasoning sauce (pretty much the same thing as Maggi seasoning sauce)
4 thick-cut pork loin chops
1 fresh pineapple, cut into spears
Combine everything except chops and pineapple in a gallon ziplock bag. Add chops, shaking to coat thoroughly, and squeeze out as much air as possible. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours (or overnight). Remove chops from bag, reserving marinade. Grill over medium heat until cooked through (about 8 minutes per side), brushing with marinade a few times until nicely marked and glazed. Remove to plate, cover loosely with foil, and let rest up to 10 minutes.
While meat is resting, turn heat up to medium-high and grill pineapple until heated through and nicely marked.
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