Today I got hungry for dinner really early. Like 3 o'clock. Maybe it had something to do with not eating since yesterday lunchtime...
Yesterday, I bought a pack of three boneless pork chops and they sounded good today. Guess what else I bought? Yellow beets and mushrooms. Guess what? I have a huge grill. And a rosemary plant.
If you want a great rub for your pork, look no further than this post. I can only say "Delish!!" and I've devoured nearly two of them. As for the beets and mushrooms, nothing beats a good cookin' on the grill. Slice these babies, slice a couple onions, and s/p them. Then... you know that rosemary plant? Cut a 4" twig and strip the leaves, dropping them into the mix of veggies. Ok, ok... here are the instructions. This meal took me less than an hour from prep to feast.
Pork Chops
Ingredients
1 1.5lb pack of boneless porkchops, though you could use what you have on-hand. Seriously. This pack was three chops, about 1/2" thick.Worcestershire sauce, to taste
1.5t Black pepper
1t Sea salt
1t thyme -- you can use fresh, too. Thyme+pork=meal loveliness!
2T brown sugar
In the pack (or a shallow dish or plate), drizzle Worcestershire sauce all over both sides of the porkchops. Sprinkle half the seasoning on each side. Rub half the brown sugar into each side. Let it sit as long as you possibly can. If the chops are thick, let them sit longer. Turn every 15mins or so.
I suggest you let them marinade at least a half hour, more time for thicker ones. Fire up that grill.
I have one of those new-fangled "infrared" grills -- translated: harder-to-clean grills. I just assume the ash from previous grilling will impart flavor to whatever else I grill on it. Once I've lit it, I have 10 minutes to get everything ready; plenty of time for the veggies.
Veggies for the Grill
Ingredients
3 large yellow beets -- I don't use the red because they color everything they cook with1.5lbs mushrooms -- I used a mix of shitake, oyster, and baby bellas
2 medium yellow onion, about a cup sliced -- or whatever you prefer to use
1/2t sea salt
1/2t black pepper
4" sprig of rosemary, leaves stripped
1/4c rendered bacon fat -- olive oil would do just fine
Pull-out a high-walled baking pan (9"x13"). Remove the tops and tap-roots from the beets, and peel them like you would peel potatoes (I feed these scraps to the cows). Slice the beets into 1/2" or less strips, like fries. Remove the Shitatke stems (yuck) and slice the caps with the oyster mushrooms. I buy baby bellas already sliced, but if you didn't, slice those puppies now. Put all of this, plus the onion, in the pan.
Add your bacon fat or olive oil to the pan, sprinkle with s/p and the rosemary. If you don't have fresh rosemary, about a teaspoon dried is fine. Take the pan to your grill and place it in there, on med-high heat, close that lid. Go get your meat. And a beer.
My grill has three heat locations, though I generally keep them all the same. For this meal, though, I lowered the two on the right to med-high for the pan, so I wouldn't burn the goodies inside.
Grilling the Meat
Pork is pretty fatty, but if you feel a need to do it, grease the side of your grill intended for the meat. Let it smoke and place your chops. Stir the veggies (they should be sizzling good, now). Close the lid. Drink some beer.I let this sit for about 4 minutes before I opened the grill, turned the meat and stirred the veggies. Then I closed the grill again. If your chops are thick, give it more time.
As the second side of the meat grilled, I opened the grill to stir the veggies a few times. This lengthened the cooking time for the meat, but allowed me to make sure the veggies weren't sticking at any time as the water cooked off.
After another 5-8 minutes of this, I removed the meat from the grill, but left the veggies to cook some more. I closed the lid and let them really get some caramelization going on the beets and onions. This gives some wonderful flavor to your veggie mix that when mixed with the smoke from the meat is unbeatable on your plate. And in your mouth...
Once the veggies are cooked to your desired doneness ( I like mine more brown, but if you don't, pull them when you are ready), turn off the grill and remove the veggies to a bowl for serving.
