Every so often my mother and I go visit my sister
and her family. And not infrequently my sister and I
gang up on Mom and get her to make something we
remember from our childhoods. Most recently we requested
pork chops, and I "helped out" in the kitchen,
meaning I watched so I could learn how to cook them
myself. (I can't just ask Mom for recipes because she
doesn't use the things. She never bothers with
timers and measuring cups and the like because she knows
what she's doing.)
What you need:
pork chops, 6 to 10 a can of mushrooms 1
green bell pepper, seeded and cut into small bits 1/2
a bulb of garlic, cloves peeled and minced garlic
powder (or garlic salt) rice
Warm up the broiler. While that's starting up spread
the chops out on a pan so they're very close but not
overlapping, kind of like a supercontinent that's just
starting to break up. (If that means nothing to you,
don't worry about it.) Scatter the mushrooms over them,
then pour the juice over all that. If you have some
button mushrooms, you can cut them up and put them in
too - this is a good way to use up no-longer-beautiful
mushrooms. Then scatter the minced garlic over that,
do the same with the peppers, and finally shake a decent
amount of garlic powder over it all. Bung it in the
broiler and start up the rice. (I use Uncle Ben's for
this, but for bento purposes I hereby declare it acceptable
to substitute sticky rice.)
Every, oh, seven minutes or so, turn the chops. You
want them to cook evenly, and you don't want them to
dry out, so turning them to keep them coated with mushroom
juice will do that, plus it'll help the flavor from
the garlic and pepper to mix in. Watch for the beginning
of browning on the chops. When that appears, they're
done! Take them out and serve over the rice.
(Technically speaking, these should be served with
broccoli and My Mom's Hollandaise Sauce, which is the
best hollandaise sauce in the world, but I haven't gotten
the hang of making that yet. Another recipe for another
time.)
Variations: Broiled steak!
Take some beef and do just the same thing to it! It'll
take less time to cook, of course, especially if you
like your meat rare. I cooked mine without the bell
peppers.
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