Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour salad

Gordon Ramsay's Pork Chops with Sweet and Sour Bell Pepper Salad 

Well I was hosting a brunch. Now I have never hosted a dinner party or brunch where I personally do not know the people because knowing my guests is the key reason for my brunches. Now these friends were originally friends of my best friend who with the years united together for the love of food , movies travel etc. In fact when I was in Delhi I had a memorable day spent with one of my lovely guests in the Jawaharlal Nehru Campus eating a lovely dish of chili lamb and taking long walks in the middle of the night no to forget the wonderful street shopping the next day. 

I had planned the brunch a long time before the B-day and as is usually my style I asked them about preference, allergies etc and my dear friend told me she wanted something exotic from me which meant, usually unheard of dishes and expressly mentioned that she doesn't consider chicken and mutton to be meat anymore which actually made me very very happy because a reason for fatty pork chops is always welcome. 

While I planned and planned the other dishes I knew what I was doing with my pork chops. Back in September I was either watching TLC or Fox Travel or some channel on television  where Gordon Ramsay had shown this extremely easy and delicious looking pork chop and I simply typed in Ramsay Pork Chops and ah I hit the jackpot. It was right there on you tube and all I did was follow the recipe but with a mild change 

You see Ramsay cooks in Britain and I cook in Kolkata. While he can easily access any cut of meat he wants I am heavily dependent on one wonderful shop and while they deliver excellent quality of meat their pork chops are always 50% meat and 50% fat. In this matter I had to do a lot of trimming of fat because believe that amount of fat can give anyone a cardiac arrest. So instead of the olive oil Ramsay used in his pork chop I simply rendered the chops instead of using any olive oil. After the enormous success of this recipe I would say keep it simple keep it delicious

So what you need is basically extremely simple 

4 Pork chops 

salt and freshly crushed pepper

5 to 6 medium sized garlic unpeeled 

Bunch of thyme (In case Fresh Thyme is not available go for the Parsley) 

Butter to brush the pan 

Sweet and sour salad 

1 red bell pepper per person 

1 medium sized onion per person 

Half tbsp sugar 

2 tbsp olive oil 

salt and pepper 

A splash of balsamic vinegar 

1 tbsp fresh finely chopped basil 

Start with the salad. Thinly slice the onions and bell pepper. Heat the olive oil and add your pepper and onion and toss it around and add salt ,pepper , sugar and toss around for another half a minute and add your splash of balmasic vinegar. While it cooks away finely chop basil and add in the pan and toss everything and then place it on the dinner plates.  Once you cook your pork chop you simply add it atop the delicious salad. It takes not more than 8 minutes to cook this dish including chopping time. 

Ramsay gave a very valuable tip to prevent the chops from curling in the pan which is easily achieved by making slits on the fatty part alone. Season with salt and pepper and pound it lightly with your hands. If you have a good amount of fat simply heat the pan on high flame , brush it with butter and put your pork chops to be cooked and when it crackles put the herb and garlic unpeeled and crushed on the sides. Cook the meat for 5 to 7 minutes on each side and in between you must use a spoon to take the oily melted fat from the pan to bast the pork for tender juicy meat. Now use high heat for the first 1 to 2 minutes to seal the juices and then cook on medium heat so that it does not burn. To be fair Ramsay did use a good amount of butter while cooking the chops as well but mine had so much of fat that the Chops were literally swimming in the fatty goodness and I didn't have to add any butter. 

Ramsay's valuable tip for getting moist juicy chops is to let the Pork chop rest for the exact amount of time it takes to cook it before serving. When asked how it was my darling friend who is usually polished blurted out , "It is F****** awesome Oh F***" I asked, "Is it juicy? " to which the reply was "F****** juicy" 

I rest my case.