PAN SEARED PORK CHOP WITH SWEET AND SOUR PEPPER
This post is contributed by One Drop member – Johnathan Oh
Pork chop is one of those dishes that many loved when done properly but avoided preparing on their own because they will more than often end up with a tough and dry pork chop or an under cook one. With this recipe, I am attempting to show you that a perfectly cooked and juicy pork chop is very achievable. Once you have tried this, I do hope that it will change they way you feel about preparing a delicious pork chop in your own kitchen .
Happy cooking, eating and eating well
Ingredients:
- 2-3 Pork chop
- 2 cups of sliced red bell peppers
- 2 cloves of garlic – crushed
- 2 shallots finely chopped
- Red wine
- Apple cider
- 1 1/2 cup of chicken/beef stock (I usually use Marmite)
- Ground black pepper
- Ground white pepper
- Salt
- Sugar
- Butter
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO)
- Essential Oil: Thyme and Basil PLUS.
How to use Essential Oil (EO) for cooking:
First and foremost, please check and ensure that the essential oils that you intend to use are safe for ingestion. I got mine from here, so I know that I could use them with a peace of mind.
I use Thyme and Basil PLUS Essential Oil for this dish. In order to use the EO to cook, please try to adhere to the following:
- DO NOT use EO from unknown, unspecified and unverified sources (Can’t stress this enough)
- DO NOT drip the EO directly on your dish
- DO NOT use EO on direct heat to avoid destroying the benefits of the EO
This is how you SHOULD do when using the EO for cooking this recipe. Pour some EVOO into a small bowl, then mix (dilute) the Essential Oil into the EVOO so that you can add the EO evenly and safely to the dish. By the way, dripping the EO directly on the dish will not cause you to die from EO overdose BUT it will definitely destroy your dish.
For this dish, mix ONE drop of Thyme PLUS Essential Oil with 1 Tablespoon of EVOO in a bowl. Reserve one teaspoon of the mixture for each piece of pork chop you are preparing. When you have remove the pork chop from the oven, spoon the mixture over the pork chop and let the pork chop rest for another 5-10 minutes.
Once you are done spooning the mixture over the pork chop, use the same bowl with the remaining oil and add ONE drop of Basil PLUS Essential Oil and 1 Tablespoon of EVOO. Mix well and incorporate them into the sauce.
Direction:
- Wash and pat dry the pork chop.
TIPS: If the pork is still wet, it will not brown well in the pan. So pat it as dry as possible. - Season and coat the pork chop well with ground black pepper, ground white pepper and salt.
- Pre-heat the oven to 190C (degree Celsius or 375 Fahrenheit).
- Heat up a pan till smoking. Add EVOO and the pork chop to sear for 3 minutes or until golden brown.
- Turn to sear the other side of the pork chop and add the garlic and 2 knobs of butter into the pan. Baste the pork chop with the oil for another 3 minutes or until the other side has browned nicely.
- Remove the pork chop and place it into the oven to bake for 3 minutes. Switch off the oven and let the pork chop rest in the oven.
- Using the same searing pan, remove the garlic, add the chopped shallots into the pan for caramelising. Add 1/2 teaspoon of raw sugar to the shallots and season with black pepper and salt.
- Add 3 Tablespoon of red wine into the pan to de-glaze the pan. Tilt the pan a little to burn out the alcohol.
- Add the bell peppers and 4 Tablespoon of apple cider into the pan, stir and let it cook for 3 minutes.
- Add the chicken/beef stock into the pan. Bring to boil and lower the heat to simmer for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat.
- Bring the pork chop out of the oven and place them on a plate.
- Add the roast juice (if any) and a knob of butter into the sauce pan and mix them in.
- Serve the pork chop with some carbo (I choose millet cooked with bacon and tomato puree but you can choose mashed potatoes, roasted vegetable, roasted pineapple etc.) or simple serve it as is with the delicious sweet and sour pepper sauce.
In order to cook meat or protein perfectly, I usually employs the searing and baking option. The searing cooked the external of the meat so that it acted like a seal to keep all the juices of the meat within the uncooked part of the meat. This is followed by the baking which cooks the inside of the meat (uncooked part). So, you may ask, since the external is already browned, wouldn’t the baking cause the exterior to char? Yes and No. If you bake continually at high temperature, yes, the exterior will char. So how do you overcome this? The answer is, you cook with the residual heat or you cook with very low heat for a very long time. I usually do not encourage the latter. Why? Because 1) electricity bill is not exactly cheap; and 2) the former option works like a charm.
For this pork chop recipe, I employ a 3:3:3 option i.e. 3 minutes searing on one side, 3 minutes searing on the other side, 3 minutes baking in the oven. When you open the oven, you will lose some heat in the oven so by baking the pork chop for 3 minutes, it allows for the oven to go back up to the desired temperature of 190C (degree Celsius or 375 Fahrenheit), bake the port chop for a short while and let the residual heat penetrate the meat as the oven is cooling down. This method will ensure that the pork chop is not only cooked perfectly, but retains an absolutely juicy texture. Oh by the way, DO NOT tenderize the pork chop. You do not need to.
If you like Johnathan’s articles and would like to purchase the Young Living oils or have further clarifications, please email Johnathan here. If you are ready to sign up as member to purchase, you can click here to join Johnathan and his team.
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