In Which I Made Something Delicious Entirely By Accident

Hurrah for food that is so easy to arrange beautifully!

     Yesterday was a long day. I already told everybody that. But, what I didn't tell you, was that after making chocolate pudding and posting (Right before midnight!), I then went on to make more food. Its alway great to get ahead! I decided to cook, and it was already midnight, and I was thinking it would be a really late night. This just proves I shouldn't think so hard. It took me a grand total of ten minutes to cook my food for today!

     I bought pork chops about a week ago and froze them. On polling my friend BJG, I found that he agreed with me: having covered the bases of chicken, veggies, and desserts, it was time to try something new. However, I had never cooked pork chops before. I was scared. I took them out of the freezer to defrost, and then did some googling. Everyone seem to fry pork chops! But I didn't have those thick pork chops on the bone, I had thin boneless pork chops. Really thin, like 1/2 inch. What easy thing can I do with such pork chops? Bake them. What does one need to bake meat? A marinade!

Notice the dreamy lighting...its a heavenly marinade.

     I love making up marinades. My philosophy is if you make a sauce that tastes really good, it will taste good in meat too. So, I mixed up some honey, ginger, and soy sauce. Can you believe it? It was as simple as that. Then, I dumped my defrosted pork chops in it and let them soak up for a bit, and then I baked them. How long did that take? Seven minutes. I felt as though I needed to do something more, and I also had a lot of leftover marinade. So, I cooked it down into a delicious, sweet, jammy glaze. 

     

      

     And, that is how I ended up with beautiful pork chops covered in delicious glaze at 1 am last night. Of course, I was far too full of Chocolate Pudding to eat any pork chops, so what did I do with them? Lunch for today! A delicious sandwich of bread, a little butter, pork chops spread with glaze, and baby spinach. I had the best lunch ever today. The glaze was sweet, the pork chops moist and perfectly cooked, and there was the lovely bitter crunch of the spinach to offset it all. Arugula would be nice too, if you don't have baby spinach (my baby spinach is done by the way! So, no more baby spinach in my recipes for a while). But, if you have only ten minutes to spare, buy some thin pork chops and keep them in the freezer. They defrost in no time, you will be able to cook them up in minutes, and they will be utterly delicious for sandwiches, to chop up and put in fried rice or with noodles, or in a salad. 

Glazed Pork Chops 

Serves 1 (To marinate more pork chops simply increase the amount of marinade in proportion) 

For the Marinade and Pork Chops: 

3 pieces Thin, Boneless, Pork Chops 

2 tbsp Honey 

1 tbsp Soy Sauce

1/4 tsp Ginger Powder 

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, mix the honey, soy sauce, and ginger powder. Place (defrosted) pork chops in the bowl and turn until thoroughly covered in marinade. After a few minutes, place on a buttered baking sheet and place in the oven. If your pork chops are 1/2 in thick, it will take 7 minutes. For 3/4 inch, 8-11 minutes. Just keep an eye on them so they don't overcook. 

For the Glaze 

Marinade 

1/4 cup Water 

1 clove Garlic, Minced 

Pour the marinade into a saucepan. Stir in the garlic and the water. At high heat, boil off the water while stirring the marinade. After a few minutes, you will be left with thick, jammy glaze. (It might take up to five minutes depending on how high your heat is.)

Notes:

I spread the glaze on the pork chops, and you could serve them like that with rice and some vegetables. You could also slice the pork chops after topping them with the glaze and then throw them into salad or fried rice. If you want to make a sandwich, all you need is some greens because the glaze means you don't need any other spread (other than a little butter) on the bread.