Pork Chops

Darlene and Wesley

When I was a little boy, I loved my mom's fried pork chops.  She would use a big old cast iron skillet that was bubbling with Crisco and drop in that meat with a handle.  The bone made eating a pork chop made it as fun to eat as a fried chicken leg.  Served with mashed potatoes and gravy, along with some sweet peas, and it was always a great meal.

Pork chops still make delicious meal, but I now buy them boneless and use a Teflon coated pan.  While that's okay, doing without the mashed potatoes is painful but necessary.  The other day my blood tests came back showing that my cholesterol and blood sugar levels are in acceptable ranges despite the fact that five years ago I stopped taking the Statins prescribed in the 1990s.  By cutting way back on my starches and sugars (Atkins-style), along with continuing an active lifestyle, I no longer have to take those pills that made my muscles ache a little.

The same recipe I use for pork chops can be used for cubed beef steak, but Smart & Final had 1-pound packages of beautiful Farmer John's thin-cut pork chops when I went shopping for something other than chicken for dinner a couple of days ago.

I prefer thin-cut pork chops, which usually cost more, but many chefs prefer thicker cuts.  As my sister used to say, "Wes likes the burned," and the thinner they are, the more done they get inside.

Coat the bottom of your frying pan with Pam Olive Oil Spray and put the pan on the range over medium heat, being sure the exhaust fan is blowing to avoid tripping your smoke detector.

Open the package of pork chops and liberally sprinkle with pepper and seasoned salt. 

Put the pork chops in the frying pan, seasoned side down, and then season the other side in the same manner.  About a pound of pork chops fills my frying pan (7 small, boneless chops total).

Throw away the packaging and wash your hands with anti-biotic soap. 

Set a timer for 7 minutes.

Take a broccoli crown and harvest the florets, washing them before putting them in a microwave-safe cooking bowl.  Julie prefers no stems, but of course with my level of cheapness, I include them on some pieces for me to eat.  Add a pat of butter and a tablespoon of water, cover with Cut-Rite Wax Paper and then set aside to heat later.

Go check your e-mail or do 25 pushups, or both.  When the timer goes off, turn over the pork chops and re-set the timer for another 7 minutes.  If the pork chops look too burned for your taste, you can cook them for less, but make sure they get totally done.  I'm convinced a lot of Jewish people are prohibited from eating pork to this day because Israelites in Abraham's time ate raw or undercooked pork and got sick.

When the timer goes off again, turn off the heat and put the pork chops on a plate. 

Put the broccoli in the microwave for two or three minutes.

Pour a cup of milk into the frying pan.  Add a dash of salt and pepper (I tend to like a lot of pepper, but Julie doesn't like much) along with a tablespoon or so of flour.  Turn the heat back on medium and stir the ingredients into a smooth mixture.  I like to add sliced mushrooms, which makes for a loverlier presentation while at the same time adding a few nutrients.

Serve the pork chops smothered in mushroom gravy with broccoli on the side for a healthy meal.

My daughter Amy, who used to help me cook pork chops when she lived at home, doesn't particularly like gravy, so for her we make a sweet, spicy relish.  Rather than doing some kind of carmelizing of berries and peppers in a mess-making ego-trip, we simply take Smucker's Simply Fruit jam and add a few drops of Tabasco Sauce.  If you don't want it spicy, you can simply use Simply Fruit.

Clean-up, once again, is a breeze.  For some reason, when you make gravy, it results in a much easier to wash frying pan after frying pork chops or chicken fried steak.

Bon appetit.  And, by the way, if you prefer to have a bone in your pork chop, or if that happens to be the way you find them at the butcher's counter, then bone appetit (I know, I know).