I have this folder full of recipes I’d like to try, mostly stuff torn out of magazines. I decided I better start actually making them and either adding them to the recipe program on Steve’s computer or tossing them, because they are just taking up space. The first pick was citrus-glazed pork chops with green beans and fennel salad. I believe it came from the April 2010 issue of Better Homes and Gardens.
I started with the salad part because I didn’t want to be distracted by chopping while the pork chops were cooking, and also to give the flavors time to “marry” before we ate. It consisted of 1/2 bulb of fennel, 1 apple, and 1 orange, all sliced thin. The dressing was the juice from 1/2 a fresh orange, 1 tablespoon of honey, and 1 table spoon of olive oil, seasoned with a little salt and pepper.
The beans were really just plain boiled/steamed green beans. Nothing fancy there, I just cleaned them up and put them on the stove while the chops were cooking.
Speaking of chops, we used 4 boneless pork chops, 1/2 an inch thick. Season with salt and pepper and cook in a pan coated with olive oil over medium-high heat for 8 minutes. Turn them, add the juice of another 1/2 orange, and cook for another 8 minutes.
Now, the sauce created by the cooking chops and the orange juice is supposed to be poured over the green beans, but I found that by the end of the cooking, there was no sauce. Most was burned to the bottom of the pan. So make other plans to flavor your green beans. I find that they are good with just a little salt and pepper.
Despite the burned sauce, the chops themselves turned out just fine. They weren’t too dry or tough, and they did get nice and flavorfully browned.
As for the salad, I need to get it through my thick skull that I don’t like fennel. The first time I had it was at a bar-b-que, and it was grilled, and I thought it was so, so good. Since then, I’ve ordered dishes with it in restaurants, and used it myself at home, but it seems like it’s always used raw, and I just don’t like it that way. Also, apples and oranges are not in season right now. And the olive oil made the dressing feel heavy; I think it would have been better, and might make a good all-purpose fruit salad dressing, with just the orange juice and honey.
So there is one mediocre dinner. If you have any suggestions as to how this might work better, please share. Otherwise, this one will probably go in the trash.
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Erin:
I did something similar with halibut. Although I baked it on a broiler pan. I created a sauce of garlic, fresh squeezed lemon juice and butter. I put this sauce in the bottom of the broiler pan then top off the fish with a bit as well as some salt and pepper. It was so good and moist because the sauce in the broiler pan “steamed” the fish. Can probably do this same thing too in the broiler pan and then may be you can have a “sauce” for the beans.
That sounds good! I love halibut and often order it at restaurants, but I’m a little afraid of cooking fish myself. I will have to try this.
Here’s my tip. It’s a little radical and there is plenty of disagreement with this idea, but hear me out: Don’t mix fruit and meat. There, I said it. I can’t stand fruit glazed pork or lamb or whatever. Keep my delicious, savory meat separate from any apricots or figs or cherries or berries or raisins or anything that should be eaten in a pie or on ice cream or just plain. Now, you were pretty okay using citrus here, and my rare exception is for a lemon or lime juice based marinade. But orange? I don’t know, I just can’t hop on that bandwagon. And I also object to apples and oranges in a salad. I mean, take the fennel out and it’s a FRUIT salad. Given my unyielding bias against the use of fruit at the dinner table, I’d probably trash that recipe, too. But it looked nice on the plate. 🙂
I can kind of get behind your fruit and meat segregation. It makes more sense to me than the prohibition on mixing meat and dairy. Although I did once make an apricot chicken that was sort of tasty. Maybe it really has to go on a case-by-case basis.
And you are right, the fennel should have been omitted and that should have been a fruit salad. But it would have been a boring fruit salad with only two kinds of fruit.