Perhaps I should call this the Pork Blog..

I will not lie, I love pork. I think I've had pork 4 times this week, in different iterations. Both lonely posts here have, in fact, been about pork. One might say I'm a bit obsessed. But I digress. This time it was chops done with my very favorite treatment, an Asian-style sweet and spicy glaze that, though different every time, always brings me the flavor that I want with my chops.

I was making dinner for my special someone, and wanted it to be something nice. I took two giant pork chops (from Costco, so delicious!) and got to work on the marinade. They really don't sit in the marinade for long, I mean, I suppose they could. But I usually only get it together a half hour before dinner, so it's more of a glaze and less of a marinade, really.

It consists of:

(all amounts completely approximate.)

1/2 cup jam (this time I used apricot, but have used pear and pineapple before)
1/3 cup soy sauce
1 Tbsp fresh ginger paste (I buy the tube in the herbs section, but you could finely chop or grate, too)
1 Tbsp chopped or pressed garlic
1/8 tsp (heavy pinch) cayenne pepper
Juice of 1-2 limes
Sugar to taste (I don't use much, if any, because of the jam.)

Mix all of the above together in a bowl deep enough to mostly cover the chops.

There! That's it! Couldn't be easier, huh?

Sure, you could add a little oil.. maybe some black pepper. Ooh - you could really shake it up and grate some onion or shallot into the mix! And really, go for it - that might be tasty. But it's just perfect as-is, so maybe try that first and then improve upon perfection next time. Because there *will* be a next time, I'm sure of it.

I pan-fried my chops in a light drizzle of canola oil for about 7 minutes a side, using the 'touch it, does it feel done?' technique to decide if it was edible. They were just about perfect this time, if I may say so myself. I am not afraid of pork-cooties as so many are - so ours were ever so slightly pink and extremely juicy.

We sauteed up some sweet yellow onions, and served the chops alongside some wild rice and roasted asparagus with balsamic vinegar. Overall the meal turned out swimmingly, and it had the intended effect. Afterall, the way to anyone's heart is directly through the stomach. Or so they tell me. :)