Pork chops have gotten a bit of a bad rap over the years. Most have come to accept the fact that when it’s pork chops for dinner, there had better be a a mega-value tub of apple sauce on the table to drown them in. Or gravy. Or wine. Much of this stems from scares about pork from 20+ years ago, when we were told we needed to cook the begeesus out of any pork for it to be safe to consume. I grew up eating pork chops that were less appetizing than some pairs of shoes I owned, so when I began cooking seriously, making a delicious, succulent, juicy pork chop was one of the very first challenges I tackled.

The two secrets for cooking mega-tasty pork chops:

1. It has to be a thick chop! None of those little “minute chops” you see at the supermarket.

2. It should be bone in for maximum flavour. This is not absolutely necessary, but source out a good butcher and get him (or her) to cut you a few of these bad boys:

Season both sides liberally with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Now how do we cook it? We want to crust the exterior of the meat, while keeping it from drying out. The answer is our trusty cast iron pan + oven combo. When cooking meats these two are BFFs, giving you both the high heat sear and the ambient heat from the oven to perfectly cook our chops. Preheat the oven to 325F.

If you have a gas range, flip the pan down on the burner and turn it on high. Let it get hot hot hot, let it go for at least 10 minutes.

Flip the pan over, add a thin layer of veg. oil to the pan, and add in your pork chops.

Now don’t freakin’ touch them! Let them sit right where they are and don’t move them around for 8-9 minutes. After this time, flip ‘em over and you should be greeted by this:

Now add a dollop of butter to the pan, and continue to cook for 2 minutes while basting the pork with the juices and butter. Oh yeah.

Now transfer that bad boy to the oven, and continue to cook for an additional 6-7 minutes.

Remove from the oven:

Now remove the chops from the pan, and drain off half the excess fat. Add in 2 diced apples, 1 clove of chopped garlic, salt and pepper, and saute for 3-4 minutes until softened.

Add in 1/2 cup of dry white wine, and the chopped sage, let reduce for 5 minutes and turn off heat. Add in 1 tsp of butter and 1 tbsp chopped parsley.

To plate! Serve with your favorite sides, here I used a quinoa, pea shoot and roasted beet salad with lemon dijon vinaigrette, but any salad or sides will do. Plate the pork chop across the sides, and finally spoon the sauce and apples over the pork chop. Garnish with more parsley and fresh sage.

As soon as you cut into the pork, all those awful shoe-leather references will be a thing of the past when this is on your fork:

Pork chops are an inexpensive and delicious cut for dinner. It’s a terrific vessel for strong flavours, so go nuts with your marinades and flavours. Spicy, sweet, curry, tangy, the many sly winking faces of pork will take everything your pantry’s got.

Don’t give up on pork chops just yet!

Enjoy

We get some emails and questions from our clients and visitors on what to do with rabbit. It’s a little pricier than say, chicken, and people will often shy away from cooking it either thinking they don’t know how, or that they won’t like it. There’s also the “cute” factor. Some of us have hang-ups with cute, fuzzy, hopping little bunnies making their way onto the dinner plate. I’ll let you know right now that I’m not one of those people, and for those looking for an absolutely delicious meal, read on with me through this picture tutorial for a great preparation of rabbit. Here’s the final dish:

Now let’s see how we got there.

Start with a whole rabbit, it’s likely your supermarket won’t carry these, so visit your local butchershop:

If you’re lucky, the rabbit will come with liver and kidney inside. Don’t throw these away. Rabbit livers as well as kidneys are in my opinion the finest in the animal kingdom, a true delicacy. We’ll be incorporating them into our final dish.

Now, we need to cut the rabbit into parts. Start by removing the hind legs. Make a cut at the base of the thigh, then twist to expose the bone:

Use a sharp knive to cut inbetween the exposed joint. Since this is a more refined dish, the entire leg is too large. We need to separate the leg from the thigh. We do this again by cutting down the middle and twisting to expose the joint we need to cut through:

Use the blade of your knife to clean up the bone a bit, and what you should have at this point should look something like this:

Next, onto the rabbit loins. Flip the rabbit over and count about 4 ribs up from the top section, then use a large knive to cut the body:

Next, flip the middle section over, and cut along either side of the spine to remove each loin section, which should look like this:

Trim the excess flap, fat, and silver skin until you have just the rabbit loins intact. Save the extra trimmings and bones for stock. Your cutting board should look like this at this point:

Put the rabbit bones and trimmings in a bag and set in fridge/freezer for stock later. Put the thighs, legs and loins on a plate and and set aside. Wash cutting board with hot soapy water and it’s on to the vegetables:

Chop 1 large leek, 1 fennel bulb, a couple large carrots , garlic and shallots into a dice.

Next, grab 2 slices of bacon and slice them into 1/4″ thin strips like so:

Heat up a large, heavy bottomed pot with a thin layer of vegetable oil, and 1 tsp of butter. Season the rabbit thighs and legs with salt and lightly dust with flour. Add them (not the loins or kidneys) to the pot and brown well:

Once browned on both sides, remove rabbit pieces from pot, and add in the bacon:

Once browned, remove bacon from pot and drain on paper towel. Drain half the fat from the pot. Now add in all the vegetables, and 1/2 cup of dry white wine.

Cook for 5-7 minutes, then add in 2 cups of chicken stock, season and add the rabbit pieces back in. Cover with lid and turn down to a simmer. It needs to simmer for 45 minutes or so.

While rabbit is cooking, make the parsley oil. Add in 2 cups fresh flatleaf parsley, a pinch of salt and 3/4 cup vegetable oil to a blender or food processor:

Blend for 5-6 minutes:

Strain through a fine sieve and set aside:

After 45 minutes, remove lid and your pot should look something like this:

Boil a small pot of salted water. Add in the gnochetti and cook for 4-5 minutes. Drain and set aside.
Heavy a large heavy bottomed saute pan with vegetable oil and butter. Saute the rabbit loins for 2-3 minutes per side, they should still be nice and pink in the middle. Then sauté the rabbit kidneys and liver for 2 minutes per side. (Keep the kidneys as a chefs snack)

Set loin aside to rest, and remove the thighs and legs from the pot. Add in 1/4 cup heavy cream to finish the sauce and reduce for 5 minutes.

To plate:

It works best if you allow the gnocchetti to cool slightly and become sticky first. Using a ring mold, spoon some of the gnochetti into the center of a plate. Compress.

Next, ladle some of the fricassee mixture over top evenly:

Slice the loins into medallions, and arrange the rabbit parts on top of the fricassee mixture. Then place a couple slices of the rabbit liver on top of it all.

And finally, drizzle with the parsley oil and rendered bacon to finish!

If this dish hasn’t made you want to try rabbit, I don’t know what will! To get the full recipe, sign up for our newsletter on our homepage, or join our facebook group here! Enjoy!

Check out our latest article in Home Makeover Magazine here!

We review the Breville Smart Oven, Kyocera “Everything Mill” Adjustable grinder, as well as provide a great summer recipe!

The link above will take you directly to our article, however feel free to check out the Home Makeover Web Site here as well.

Stay tuned, cause we’ll have more videos, recipes and other great articles posted in the very near future!

Vancouver Personal Chef Drew Cooks! Pork Tenderloin with Wild Mushroom Orzo from Drew Munro on Vimeo.

Recipe:

Ingredients: (serves 4)

For roasted tomato rosé:

- 3 medium vine ripened tomatoes, diced
- 2 tbsp butter
- 2 tbsp flour
- 2 cups milk
- salt, pepper , e.v. olive oil

Method:
Set oven to broil. Arrange tomatoes in a thin layer on a baking sheet and season with salt and pepper. Broil for approximately 12 minutes or until slightly charred. In a medium sauce pan, combine butter and flour until evenly incorporated, and then whisk in milk, stirring until thickened, about 2-3 mins. Reduce heat to simmer, add in tomatoes and puree with an immersion blender or regular blender for a smooth sauce. Set aside.

For the Wild Mushroom Orzo

Ingredients:
– 2.5 cups uncooked orzo
– 4 shallots, sliced thinly
– 1 cup chopped oyster mushrooms
– 2 tbsp marscapone cheese
– salt and pepper

Method:

Boil water in a medium sauce pan, season liberally with salt and add in orzo.
While orzo is cooking, in a sauté pan heated with olive oil, cook the shallots and oyster mushrooms until browned, and set aside. Drain orzo and return to pan off the heat. Stir in the marscapone cheese, and the oyster mushroom mix, reserving 1 tsp to garnish each plate. Stir until evenly mixed.

For pork tenderloin:
– 1 small pork tenderloin, cut in half
– 1 tsp butter
– 1 tsp olive oil
– salt and pepper

Remove any silverskin or excess fat from the tenderloin and season liberally with salt and pepper. Preheat oven to 375F.

Heat a large sauté pan over med-high heat and add in the olive oil and butter. When pan is hot, add in the pork tenderloin, searing both sides until caramelized, 3-4 minutes. Finish in the oven for approximately 10-12 minutes depending on the size of your tenderloin, until cooked through.

To plate:

Using a ring mold, spoon 3-4 tbsp of the orzo mixture into the center of each plate and using a squeeze bottle or a small spoon, drizzle sauce around the edge of the mold. Remove mold and you should have a lovely little puck holding its shape.

Slice 3 small medallions of pork and arrange on top of the orzo. Top with the reserved caramelized shallot and mushroom mixture and garnish with fresh chives or flatleaf parsley, serve immediately.

Enjoy!