Pork chop

Supplementary pork chop and apple

Posted by Gary

Dear Reader,

Last night, I cooked a pork chop. I had prepared two but only cooked one.

Tonight I’m having the second one but cooking it differently.

Last night I used a frypan and monitored the internal temperature with a manual meat probe (rather than the wireless device I often use).

Tonight I’m using a water bath and a precision cooker.

The reason for the difference is that for rapid cooking, getting an internal temperature of 68 °C is important for food safety. I can pasteurise the meat at a lower temperature with a water bath for a more succulent mouthfeel.

Different tastes and textures on my tongue and in my mouth are what I enjoy about eating.

Recipe

Equipment

  • Water bath
  • Precision cooker

Ingredients

  • Pork chop (dry brined)
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Garlic powder
  • Pink Lady apple
  • Strawberry jam
  • Leftover tomato sauce (from last night’s meal)
  • Red cabbage

Instructions

  1. Place the pork chop into a bag and seal it.
  2. Cook the pork at 54.4 °C for 1 hour.
  3. Remove the chop from the bag, dry the surface, and sear it.
  4. Cut a Pink Lady apple into eight slices longitudinally.
  5. Put the apple into a bag along with a tablespoon of strawberry jam and about ⅓ cup of leftover tomato sauce.
  6. Seal the bag and cook in a water bath at 65 °C for 2 hours.
  7. Slice the cabbage and sauté in a frypan.
  8. Serve everything on a plate.
  9. Give thanks to the Lord.
  10. Eat with a knife and fork.

Thoughts

The pork chop was succulent and delicious. The apple added a spicy sweetness which was enjoyable.

I’m excited about the week to come. I hope you have a great week doing whatever you enjoy in life.

Photographs

Pork chop
Sous vide pork chop with Pink Lady apple and red cabbage
Sous vide pork chop with Pink Lady apple and red cabbage
Sous vide pork chop with Pink Lady apple and red cabbage
Sous vide pork chop with Pink Lady apple and red cabbage

Pork chop and cabbage

Posted by Gary


If you don’t want to read the introductory words, click here for the recipe.

Dear Reader,

Introduction

I hope you’ve had a good week. My week was rewarding and satisfying. Next week will be even better. 

Inspiration 

I got the inspiration for tonight’s meal from a bible study friend. She mentioned that she and her husband enjoy pork chops. I haven’t eaten a pork chop for I can’t remember how long. 

I went to the supermarket on Friday evening to dry brine the pork overnight for tonight’s meal.

Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce

What have I been reading? 

I’m in the last part of “The Myth of Normal” by Gabor Maté.

I’m not sure what I’ll read next. It may be some science fiction. If anyone has any suggestions, let me know. I enjoyed the “Monroe Doctrine” series that advanced into science fiction with artificial intelligence-enhanced warfighting. The addition of biological and nuclear weapons heightened my interest. 

Recipe

  • Equipment 
  • Frypan 
  • Saucepan 
  • Oven 
  • Mortar and pestle 
  • Meat thermometer

Ingredients 

  • Pork loin chops with the bone in 
  • Flaky iodised salt 
  • Black peppercorns 
  • Garlic powder 
  • Rice bran oil 
  • Red (purple) cabbage 
  • Marmalade 
  • Potato 
  • Tomatoes
  • Worcestershire sauce

Instructions

  1. Grind some peppercorns in a mortar with a pestle.
  2. Dry brine the pork by seasoning it with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and refrigerating it uncovered overnight.
  3. Slice some cabbage and sauté in a frypan until it’s softened. 
  4. Add in some marmalade and stir it through. 
  5. Transfer the cabbage to a warm bowl for later. 
  6. Wash the dirt off the potato, quarter it longitudinally, rub in a little oil, and season the pieces with salt. 
  7. Place the potato into a hot oven (220 °C) and cook for about 25 minutes. 
  8. Cook the pork in a frypan for a few minutes on each side and measure the internal temperature. 
  9. The aim is to get the internal temperature to 68 °C. 
  10. Allow the pork to rest for the equivalent amount of time it took to cook on the frypan. 
  11. Quarter six small tomatoes and blend with some marmalade and Worcestershire sauce. Bring it to a slow simmer in a small saucepan. Then add ground peppercorns, salt, and garlic powder. I added too much pepper, so the sauce is bordering on uncomfortably spicy. It was surprisingly good with the finished meal.
  12. Dissect the bone from the meat with a knife and then slice the pork. 
  13. Plate up and give thanks to the Lord. 
  14. Eat with a fork while watching TV. 

What’s happening next week? 

I’m travelling and off to meet people I’ve only met online. It should be good. 

I’m shy and introverted, and meeting people in person can be awkward. We’ll see; I’m looking at it all positively. 

The rugby league State of Origin competition kicks off in Adelaide this week. I hope for a great game between the Queensland Maroons and the New South Wales Blues.

Because I’ll be away, I may not post next weekend. 

Self-hosting to WordPress.com 

I’ve considered moving from a self-hosted site to WordPress.com for this blog. The server charges are high, and my commitment to blogging isn’t as strong as it once was. 

My original idea when starting a self-hosted site was to be free to change things I desired without being constrained. Because of my current employment, income wasn’t a consideration. Drawing a second income would not be permitted. 

I’ve seen how WordPress.com has developed since then, and there are fewer constraints and more freedom. 

I’ve just paid my server fees for three years, so this is not something I’ll embark on soon, but it will be something to plan and execute at the right time. 

Final thoughts 

The pork was perfectly cooked. It was tender and juicy.

  • Do you like pork chops? How do you like them cooked, and what do you serve with them? 
  • Do you enjoy meeting people in person who you’ve only known online? 
  • What are you reading at present? 

Have a good week, and happy eating and living. 

Photographs

Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce
Pork chop with red cabbage, potato wedges, and spicy tomato sauce

Pork chop and pickles

Posted by Gary

If you don’t care for the story, you can skip to the recipe here.

Sous vide pork chop seared

Hello reader,

I hope you’re well. I didn’t post last week because Katie and I enjoyed a weekend together, and while I did cook and shoot photographs, I didn’t have the desire to post.

How has your week been? My work week has been more ordered. After about four weeks, I was able to return to my honorary role at Canberra Health Services on Friday. CHS is my Friday happy place.

In my paid job, I’ve been working with a graduate, who, like me is very keen on Microsoft SharePoint as a platform for work collaboration. It’s a terrific tool to bring order and convenience to the work we need to accomplish.

I don’t know if you work in an environment where people collaborate on a task, and you end up with multiple copies with everyone’s versions. Trying to get them all together coherently is time-consuming. Being able to have one document and have from a few to dozens of people working on it at the same time makes more sense.

When coupled with a piece of referencing software like EndNote™, work becomes so much easier.

The collaboration extends into non-work environments too. This week, I participated in a church committee meeting, and we’re all using Google Drive to work on a document for our fellowship.

For my loved ones, as an Apple enthusiast, I use the MacOS and iOS operating systems and tools for collaboration like shared calendars, notes, and photos. Living in the 21st century is cool.

Recipe

Ingredients

  • Pork loin chop
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Savoy cabbage
  • Red cabbage
  • Red onion
  • Bird’s-eye chillies*
  • Shallots
  • Ginger
  • Cloves
  • White vinegar
  • Sugar
  • Capers

Instructions

Pork

  1. Season the pork with salt and pepper and vacuum seal.
  2. Cook in a water bath at 54 °C for 2 hours and 10 minutes.
  3. Remove the pork from the bag and dry the surfaces with kitchen paper.
  4. Sear the pork in a hot frying pan.
  5. Allow the pork to rest for about 10 minutes.
  6. Slice the pork with a sharp knife for presentation purposes.

Pickles

  1. Slice the two types of cabbage.
  2. Cut the onion and shallots into slices.
  3. Slice the Brussels sprouts.
  4. Mince the ginger.
  5. In a jar dissolve sugar and salt in some vinegar.
  6. Add the cabbage, onion, shallots, Brussels sprouts, ginger, and cloves to a vacuum bag.
  7. Pour the vinegar solution into the bag.
  8. Vacuum seal the bag.
  9. Halfway through the pork cook, add the pickles to the water bath.
  10. Remove the vegetables and pick out the cloves.
  11. Drain the vegetables.

Capers

  1. Add rice bran oil into a small saucepan and heat until it reaches 180 °C.
  2. Add the capers (once rinsed and dried on some paper towel) and cook until crisp (around 30 seconds).
  3. Remove the capers from the oil and transfer them to a plate covered in a few sheets of paper towel.

Plating up and serving

  1. Place the drained pickles on a dinner plate and lay the pork on top.
  2. Top the pork with the crispy capers.
  3. Give thanks to the Lord.
  4. Eat with a fork.

Thoughts on the meal

Because of the effects of Japanese encephalitis in Australian piggeries, prices for pork will likely rise. I’m trying to get as much pork in my mouth as possible.

I’ve been enjoying pickles a lot more lately.

The highlight was the fried capers. The capers were salty and crispy and could easily substitute for a packet of potato chips.

Final thoughts

  1. Do you like using collaboration tools at work?
  2. How has your week been?
  3. Do you like pickled vegetables with pork?
  4. Have you tried fried capers before?
Bird’s eye chillies
Pickled vegetables
Sous vide pork chop
Sous vide pork chop seared
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers
Pork chop with pickled vegetables and crispy capers

Footnotes

Bird’s eye chillies are also known as Thai chillies. In Thai, the name means mouse faeces chilli because of the shape of the fruit. The Bird’s eye chilli scores between 50,000 and 100,000 Scoville heat units (SHU) on the Scoville scale. Chillies are good for my hypertension. [1]

1.         Shi, Z., et al., Chilli intake is inversely associated with hypertension among adults. Clin Nutr ESPEN, 2018. 23: p. 67-72.

Dinner from last Saturday night. Sous vide scotch fillet steak with potato mash, pickled vegetables, amd green peppercorn gravy
Dinner from last Sunday evening. Sous vide salmon and Hokkien noodles.