Summer is almost over and so is the grilling. But until it actually ends, I’ll keep posting summer grilling recipes. Recently, I’ve been marinating my food with Asian seasonings such as sesame oil and soy sauce. I wanted to change it up a bit so I marinated these pork chops with Italian ingredients. It doesn’t hurt that I have all the ingredients in my pantry already.
What you need:
- 1 large size red onion
- 1/2 bunch of parsley
- 1/2 head of garlic
- salt- to taste
- pepper – to taste
- sugar – 1 tablespoon
- corn starch – 1 tablespoon
- dried oregano – 2 tablespoons
- dried basil – 3 tablespoons
- white cooking wine – 3/4 cup
- basil infused olive oil- 1/4 cup, otherwise regular olive oil
- pork chops – 8 thin cut pieces, washed and cleaned
Side dishes:
- Herb and Butter rice – from a package
- Frozen vegetables Sautéed with Ginger and scallions and soy sauce
- ginger – 1 inch piece, minced
- scallions – 3 or 4 stalks, chopped into 1/2 pieces
- Soy sauce – 1/8 cup
- Oil – for stir frying
First begin by dicing the onions, and then mincing the parsley and garlic.
Take 1/4 of the garlic, 1/4 of the chopped onions and 1/4 of the chopped parsley and place aside in a bowl. This will be used later to make a sauce.
In the meantime, chop up the scallions and ginger and place aside.
Place the  salt, pepper, cornstarch, oregano, basil, and  sugar into a bowl.
Then pour in the oil and mix together. Look familiar? It’s the type that they have at my school’s dining hall.
Take the pork chops and place them into a large gallon size ziplock bag. Pour in the oil herb mixture as well as the fresh garlic, parsley and onions. Make sure all pieces are covered in the marinade.
15 minutes before you are about to cook, start microwaving your frozen vegetables and begin boiling water for the side of rice.
5 minutes later, preheat the grill to 400 degrees.
Recruit a friend. Doesn’t matter who it is as long as they know how to grill. Have him or her grill the porkchops outside while you are inside stir frying the vegetables, cooking the rice and creating the sauce.
Heat up the wok. When it is hot, add oil. When the oil is hot, add your ginger and scallions. Once they are brown, add the microwaved frozen vegetables and begin mixing together. Add soy sauce scallions and ginger have been mixed through. Stir fry for only a few more minutes without the lid and then plate the food.
While the wok is heating up for the vegetables, your rice should already be cooking since it takes about 15 minutes. You know what rice looks like when its done, but I’ll include a pretty picture anyways. This is a blog after all =).
So while you are tending to your vegetables and rice, in a third pan you will be making a sauce for the pork chops.  Heat up a skillet and add some oil. When the oil is hot, sauté the garlic, onions and parsley that we set aside. Once they are cooked nice and soft, add the cooking wine to the skillet. Your skillet will sizzle and create lots of steam. Don’t worry, it’s supposed to do this. At this point, mix the cornstarch with a small amount of water on the side and pour the mixture into the skillet. Be sure that there are no cornstarch lumps. Let the sauce reduce down by 1/4 so that it doesn’t taste to much like cooking wine. Set aside.
So hopefully your friend didn’t burn your pork chops! They should look like this. Plate the pork chops and bring them inside.
Once everything is ready, grab yourself a plate with some rice, vegetables and pork. Take the sauce, pour it over the pork chops and enjoy!
