Happy Mothers Day! I made applewood smoked grilled salmon on the grill for Mom and Chelle. Along with fresh asparagus, jasmine rice and garlic knots.
Here’s my mom, Louise (left), having fun with the widows group that has friended her here in Coldwater.
And here she is (left again) with our friend and neighbor Ms. Helen, as they leave for their Crazy Dress Day luncheon with the widows group.
Here’s another dish I make regularly: pork chops in vinegar peppers. This time it was served with fresh squash, lima beans, stewed okra with tomatoes and green cayennes, and sliced homegrown tomatoes for supper. We followed that up with coffee and Chelle’s home made chocolate pie.
I love these thick center cut pork chops cooked this way. I had about a cup and a half of fresh basil, thyme, rosemary and spicy oregano from the herb garden I chopped up and added after I simmered the peppers for a bit. It was awesome.
Recipe: Pork Chops In Vinegar Peppers
I got the original recipe idea from an episode of the Sopranos. It’s supposed to be a traditional Italian dish. I adjusted it to my liking. It goes great with long grain wild rice and a bottle of Cabernet!
Ingredients:
- 4-5 tbl sp. olive oil in skillet
- 4 pork chops, 1 inch thick
- salt & fresh ground pepper
- 1tsp. Cavendars Greek Seasoning
- 2 stems fresh Rosemary about 8″ long. Remove the leaves and chop em up.
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 16 oz jar Marzetta Sweet Red pickled peppers. (pour off and reserve vinegar. De-stem peppers and chop into roughly 1/4)
- 1/2 16 oz jar Marzetta Pepperoncini peppers. (pour off and reserve 1/2 the vinegar. De-stem peppers and chop into roughly 1/4 chunks)
- (I use 1 jar of hot red peppers in vinegar, Marzetti, for a little added heat if you like this dish spicy! (destem and slightly chop)
- 3 -5 hot pepperoncini peppers (optional) to garnish
Directions:
- Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium high heat.
- Pat chops dry, sprinkle with salt and pepper, Greek Seasoning and add to hot, oily skillet.
- Add garlic and Rosemary.
- Cook chops on medium for 5-10 minutes on each side. You want them done through, but don’t kill em! NO CRUNCHY CHOPS… like mom used to fry! 😉
- You want to get them done on the inside then turn the heat up a little bit and get a little brown scald on them on each side. This scald on the chops and the skillet is what makes your pepper sauce!
- Remove chops, add vinegar to the hot skillet and using a wooden spatula, de-glaze all that brown scald into the vinegar. Add your peppers and simmer for a couple of minutes. Put your pork chops back in, nestle them down in the peppers, cover and let simmer for about 5 to 8 minutes more, but don’t let them dry out.
- Check for done-ness.
- Remove lid, raise the heat if you need to and let the vinegar reduce till there is just a little excess juice in the peppers.
- Place chops on plate and spoon the peppers over chops and serve immediately.
