Citrus Pork Chops with Rosemary

Hello, welcome to Down To Earth, I'm Chef Yiorgo, real recipes for real people. I owned Sonio’s Café here in Las Vegas, a popular local restaurant.

Today, we’re going to be doing a bunch of different recipes that are quick, simple, easy, fun and fresh. We’re going to start our Citrus Pork Chops with Rosemary. Now, this is a recipe that I came up with because I find pork to be a very interesting meat to work with and to cook with. It’s a white meat, and there’s a lot of different type of pork that is out there. I prefer to choose pork that has a nice pink color to it.

And if you’re choosing a pork and you’re going into the grocery store it’s very important that you make sure you don’t get something that has a very dull color to it. That can also tell you that it’s been sitting on the rack too long. You also want to touch it a little bit and you want to make sure that it gives in to your fingers slightly. It doesn’t want to be hard, but you don’t want it to be so soft that your finger goes right down at the bottom. It’s also going to indicate that the pork is a little bit old.

Now, pork has an interesting flavor because it is so neutral, and therefore it’s a wonderful meat to work with because it has a lot of versatility. This is a great dish. It’s a fun dish especially fun to use, and to make when it is spring time because what we’re going to do is we’re going to use a lot citrus and vegetables and fruits in this dish.

We’re going to start out with some lemon juice. It doesn’t matter how much you have. You have to need enough to be able to coat up. I'm going to put lemon juice into a mixing bowl. I also have some caramel. Now, when you perk in caramel, it doesn’t matter what type of caramel you’re going to use. You can use regular caramel. You can use fat-free caramel. It doesn’t make a difference. I’ve done it with both. I’ve done it for different types of people at different flavors, and people that are on diet, people that aren’t. It doesn’t really matter. The flavor is all the same when it cooks out.

The first thing you want to do is want to grab the pork chop and give it a quick coating. Take it right from the caramel into the lemon juice. Just let it hang out there for a minute.

Now, I’ve made this recipe in my restaurant for special occasions. And, it is really turn people on the pork. They don’t like pork, so if you ever cooking for someone that doesn’t have a tendency to care for pork too much, this might be something that changes their mind.

This is about 12 ounces of caramel. If you want to use 16 ounces, it’s fine. If you like it to be a little sweeter, and in the end of the meal you’ll see when we take the top off for meal. Caramelize it a little bit, no pun intended. You’ll be able to see that the sweetness is going to come out. So, if you prefer to be slightly sweeter, feel free to use some more. We are going to use all of these. It’s not just to marinate.

Now, while the pork chops are marinating in the lemon juice, we’re going to start preparing our vegetables and our fruits. We’re going to use fresh Rosemary. Now, on this dish I definitely prefer fresh Rosemary to dried Rosemary because you want the Rosemary to cook off in the oven. Whereas dried Rosemary typically is already there.
I'm going to use some garlic, fresh gloves. You’re only going to need two, little bit of salt, some dried parsley that we’re going to sprinkle on the top later, some olive oil, some yellow onions, some D’Anjou pears and some fresh lemons.

Now, I prefer to cook this meal with D’Anjou pears as opposed to a Bosc pear or red pear because I find the flavor in a D’Anjou pear to be generally more palatable and definitely sweeter when they’re cooking. It cooks down a lot easier than the other sides of pears however, again, if you only have one type of pear. It’s not going to hurt.

Start by slicing the pear up around the core depending on the time of year, they might have more seeds. This one seems to be pretty good. We got a nice pear today. Now, when I cook this dish and when I cook in general I find it definitely to be it’s your advantage to taste the food that you’re eating that you’re cooking with while you’re cooking with them. It’s going to do a couple of things for you. First of all, it’s going to give your nose and your palate an idea of what the dishes going to taste like in the end even before it’s finish cooking.

Also, there are a lot of ingredients in a typical meal that you’re going to add that are going to be taste. For instance, black pepper like we had on our last dish. Today, a lemon or if you make use of sugar or salt, typically you’re going to want to add or subtract depending on your flavor. So, it’s important that you taste the fruit to find out, are they very sweet? Depending on the time of the year, they might be less sweet or sweeter. This one is just perfect right in the middle, sweet enough.

Now when you’re cutting pears, it’s important that you get them thin. The reason for that is because we’re going to layer them on the bottom of the pan. We’re going to make a little bed for the pork chop to sit on. Now, I'm not cutting these onions in any particular design or in any particular way and the reason for that is because I'm going to a separate many how when we get them into the pan.

In this dish, I’ve use many different types of pans. I’ve used disposable pans when I'm doing caterings. Today, we’re just going to use pan. Now, you want to break the onions up, so that you can layer them around the pan. You want a thick layer when you’re doing this. Pretty much do not want to see the bottom of the pan at all.

What we’re creating here is a bottom layer that is going to evaporate through the pork chop that we’re going to layer on the top. So it’s very important that you are liberal with the onions. The order that you put these on the pan is also very important. You must start with the onions. If done another ways, it’s certainly does not turn out as good.

Now, lemons for this, you want to choose that’s kind of on the firm side which means it necessarily isn’t the ripest one. And what’s that going to do is going to give the flavor a little bit more tang. It’s going to be a little more tart than if you use a lemon that is a little riper that is probably got more sugary flavors to it. The reason for this also is because you’re going to be cooking the lemon without taking any bit apart. You can use the brines and everything in there. So the thickness of these doesn’t really matter. You want to make them a little thicker than the pears, a bit quarter half an inch and you’re going to layer those right on top of the onions.

The two fruits here we have one to three citrus. We have one that is not. The minute predominant flavor of this dish is actually going to be a combination of these and therefore when you’re putting this dish together, it’s imperative that you pay attention to the order and what’s touching what and as we get through the layering of this process here we’re going to see that the olive oil is going to tie all of the juices that you see on the cutting board that are going to be dip in and mixing with the pork. It’s going to bring them to life. It’s going to tie them in. It’s the mayana, the shrub that stirs the drink.

You want to check your oven from time to time and make sure that it’s hot enough to cook a pizza. If you guys don’t know how to cook pizzas, you always want pizza that will be very hot. On this dish as well, you want it to be very, very hot. You want to shock the fruit and vegetables when you put them in there. You want to shock them to release all their flavors and that is exactly what is going to happen. We’re going to slice the rest of these pears, and we’re going to layer them on top of the onions.

Now, I suggest using three down fat D’Anjou pears. The reason for that is because you’re only going to use about three quarters of what you’re cutting first, and then we’re going to go back and we’re going to use the remaining 25% of that on the top. The rule of thumb, it’s always better to have more pears than less on this dish. So don’t be afraid to be liberal with the pears.

We’ve got our layered pan here and now it’s time to take the pork chops out. You don’t want the pork chops to touch. You want them to be far enough apart. First of all, that you can grab them and serve them when they’re finish, but also so that you have enough space in between them for the aromas to get all the way around the pork. You’re going to take the lemon and the juice and you are going to pour it over the top of the dish. And this is going to be a portion of the juices that evaporate when you’re cooking them.

You’re going to take some olive oil, and you’re going to drizzle it over the top and use about a half for cup of olive oil. Now, if you prefer for a few mis-measure it and slightly more, that’s okay. But you don’t want this ingredient to be too much. The olive oil is going to draw everything together, and it’s kind of tie in the flavors however, if you put too much in, it’s not going to cook off, and your pork chops are going to be slightly oily.

We’re going to take some black pepper and we’re going to sprinkler some black pepper, about a tablespoon. Spread over the top lightly. Now, if you’ve ever cooked with lemon pepper, this is the same thing except this is fresh. And I want to get a light covering mixture you have to chop, and make sure you had the lemons and the fruit.

Now, you’re going to lay the Rosemary under the chop and tuck nice right underneath there. When you’re choosing Rosemary sometimes running fresh Rosemary in the grocery store can be difficult. If you have a whole fruit to market, or if you have a fresh food to market that’s near your home, you might want to try there they tend to have stuff that is more regularly brought in the rest into the grocery store. And I prefer leaves that are bright green, very firm to detach. Fix them, they are nice too because I still believe there’s a lot of flavor in the stems.

We’re going to put just a pinch of salt. Our salt again is one of those items that you’re going to put to taste. I tend to use anywhere between one teaspoon and one tablespoon on this dish depending upon how many chops I’m making. I’m only doing four right here. So I'm going to use a little bit less, but again when you’re seasoning this, don’t just focus on the pork chops because the flavor later on when we serve this is going to be dependent upon the fruit and the vegetables that are in there. You’re going to serve those as well, and that hopefully you’re getting to every bite. We’re going to finish this with some dried parsley that I’d like to sprinkle right on the top and feel free to be liberal with the parsley. It soaks up the juices very well.

Another thing too that you might want to consider is you might want to consider using a disposable pan for this which I will bring out in just a minute and show you what that look like as well. Finally, we’re going to take a couple of gloves of garlic. Now I want to show you a quick technique that’s real easy to do. It seems so many people labor over cleaning garlic. And especially some of my cooks, they’ve been training them in the restaurant. They all sit there and I pull them apart and they will get them to their fingernails and all of the sudden their hands are strong like garlic for the next year.

Take a knife, a nice broad knife, butcher knife, chef’s knife and take the garlic clove and just lay it flat right on the cutting board. Take the side of the knife and lay it firmly on top, and with the palm of your hand give it a good solid push. You hear it crunch. I’ll do it again, so prepare crunch.

And after that, the skin comes right off and you’re done. Now, we’re going to chop and slice this and then we’re going to chop it as finely as you can. Garlic is very sugary. It has a lot of natural sugars in it. Also fresh garlic as you know tends to be a lot more potent than dry garlic although granulated garlic and garlic salt can certainly both be potent. So again, you’d like to taste and or smell your ingredients before you’re using them to make sure that they’re not too strong, and they’re not going to overpower the dish. You’re going to take the garlic, and you’re going to just sprinkle it right on to make sure that you get the chops.

You’re going to take the remaining caramel, and you’re just going to drizzle it right over the top of the dish all over the pork chops, all over the pears and this is going to help them to caramelize. Now, remember our oven is very hot. And what we’re going to do is we’re going to cook this in the oven at 400 for about 45 minutes with a cover on.

The reason of the cover is because what you’re doing is basically creating a little bit of a hot box. You’re going to create a little ecosystem inside of there and the oil, the juices that we put are going to start evaporate and you don’t want them to evaporate outside. You want them to circulate inside, so you’re going to cover the dish and the juices and the air so all are going to be very aromatic inside of there and that is also going to help to cook for the chops a little faster.

We’ll end up happening after 45 minutes, is 45 minutes into it, the pork chop will become very white. To become a color that you may not recognize pork, beef and it’s almost like you’re steaming the chops. After about 45 minutes and again depending upon your open if you have an oven that’s gas. They tend to find that a gas oven doesn’t reach the same type of the temperature as in electrical oven does for this particular dish.

So I’d say check it from time to time, and if you find that you need to increase the temperature a little bit maybe put on 425, it’s something that you might want to do. The idea with that is to steam the pork chop in the juices, so that it covers the entire dish, and you can notice that everything in this dish is going to melt down. It’s going to reduce and the onions and the lemons are all going to be a kind of liquidly, and that is where the flavor of this really comes to life.

Now I'm laying my pears on top and the pears you don’t want to eat each one for a bite of pear. Each bite of the pork chop is so delicious. Alright, voila, now we’re going to take the pork chops we’re going to throw a cover on them. Any tin foil is going to do. It doesn’t have to anything special. It’s going to end up sticking to the top, and you’re going brewing away in hell.

You do want to make sure that there’s a nice seal over it, so that none of the aroma escapes. You want to put in the very hot oven for 45 minutes. It will look like this. If you notice all of the lemons have cooked down. They kind of shriveled, and the onions have all shrunk and the pears and look at all that beautiful, delicious juice.

Make sure when you’re serving the chop that you get right underneath that get all the goodies that are underneath the juices, look at that. Isn’t that lovely? Now it looks so delicious, take a spoon and get the juices and the onions right on top of that. Oh! It’s so delicious. It smells wonderful, doesn’t it? If you have any remaining parsley, sprinkle it right around just as the plate. Voila! These pork chops with Rosemary fast, easy, fresh and delicious.


Transcription by: Scribe4you Transcription Services