Cooking: Pork Chops and Veggies

Menu
Pan-Fried Glazed Pork Chops
(from Jamie's Food Revolution by Jamie Oliver)

Baked Winter Squash with Tomatoes
(from Best Ever Three and Four Ingredient Cookbook)

Pan-Fried Glazed Pork Chops
- 2 x 8oz pork chops
- olive oil
- sea salt and black ground pepper
- 4 sprigs of fresh sage
- optional: 1 lemon
- applesauce, mango, chutney, apricot jam, maple syrup or honey to glaze

I used honey to glaze the pork chops.

The first step was to cut the fat trimmings off to use it to use it as garnish (extra flavouring) at the end. My pork chops didn't have much fat trimmings so that didn't work out so well. I was supposed to fry the olive oil soaked sage in the frying pan for about 30 seconds. I looked away for a few seconds and I burnt them. I left some sage in the olive oil so I can use as garnish at the end.

The next step was to pan fry the pork chops. It seemed like it burnt more than it cooked. Because I brushed on the honey, it caramelized. The recipe said to fry it for about 4-5 minutes each side. After 5 minutes, it was still pinkish. I fried it for a few more minutes. When it was done, I put a piece of pork chop on the plate and garnished it with the fried sage and the fresh sage.

Baked Winter Squash with Tomatoes

- 1 kg pumpkin or orange winter squash, peeled and sliced
- 2 x 14 oz cans chopped tomatoes with herbs
- 2-3 rosemary sprigs, stems removed and leaves chopped

I used butternut squash instead of pumpkin or orange winter squash and used about 1/2 a kg. I used fresh tomatoes instead of canned tomatoes and it wasn't as much as 2 x14 oz cans. I used thyme instead of rosemary. I guess I made my own recipe but used this as a guide.

First step was to fry the squash until a golden brown. After I fried the squash, I put them aside. But the recipe said to leave it in the pan and then put the tomatoes in. I fried the tomatoes in the pan until it was sauce consistency. I added the thyme, salt and pepper and also included some chili pepper paste for some extra flavour. In a shallow glass casserole pan, I layered the squash then the tomatoes. It was then that I realized I didn't use enough tomatoes. It was all I had so it had to do. It was then baked for about 35 minutes. It came out ok.