Family Day, Children, Brining

Today is Family Day in Canada which means the bowling alley is thick with kids and the noise would be horrendous. The bowling alley cancels our league for the day - I am not quite sure I approve of  that. I guess they make more money from families on that day than they would from our league. Even if we bowled, the kids would still be there in force, downstairs if nowhere else. I was saying to Matt earlier (Saturday) I wish they had introduced Family Day during our working life. Would have been an extra day off during the year. They were certainly talking about it but didn't make it into a stat day until the time we were living in the US. Ah well.

I sell Avon working with another rep who supplies me with my product.  She, poor woman, was involved with her daughter the last few weeks. Her 3 year old daughter who has been pronounced legally blind. What a horror at 3. I am so very sorry for the family.

As you know, I have been having problems with Matt and tough meat. So Saturday night I decided to have pork chops and ended up brining them then doing them in a Korean style way. I have posted the brine. I don't know, but Matt did eat all his pork chop so maybe it worked. I did brine them for 4 hours.

BRINING Pork Chops

3 cups cold water, divided
3 Tbs coarse kosher salt (or 2 1/2 tablespoons table salt)
Optional flavorings: 2 smashed garlic cloves, 1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns, 1 bay leaf

1. If you have time, brining the pork for even a brief period adds flavor and ensures juiciness in the finished chop. Bring 1 cup of the water to a boil, add the salt and optional flavorings, and stir to dissolve the salt. Add 2 more cups of cold water to bring the temperature of the brine down to room temperature. Place the pork chops in a shallow dish and pour the brine over top. The brine should cover the chops — if not, add additional water and salt (1 cup water to 1 tablespoon salt) until the chops are submerged. Cover the dish and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to 4 hours.

Korean Style Pork Chops - a simple recipe for Korean style marinated pork chops, resulting in melt in your mouth, super delicious pork chops. Best ever!

4 pork chops
1 Tbs olive oil
1/4 cup soy sauce low sodium
2 Tbs honey
4 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp ginger minced
2 tsp sriracha sauce
black pepper to taste

1. Brine first

2. Preheat oven to 400 F degrees.

3. In a medium size bowl whisk together the soy sauce, honey, garlic, ginger, sesame oil and sriracha sauce. Pour over pork chops and let marinade for about 20 minutes.

4. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet for medium high heat. Add pork chops, without marinade, and cook for about 5 minutes for the first side, or until it gets a nice brownish color. Flip the pork chops and pour the remaining marinade over them. Cook another 5 min on this side.

5. Place the skillet in the oven to finish cooking them. Roast for about 10 minutes, or until pork chops are completely cooked through.

Servings: 4

Tips
If your pork chops are not very thick, mine were about 1 inch in thickness, you might not need to finish cooking them in the oven.

Author: Joanna Cismaru


Have a great day