Brined Pork Chops with Apple Compote, Glazed Carrots, Roasted Potatoes

Brined Pork Chops with Apple Compote, Glazed Carrots, Roasted Potatoes

After trying to brine pork chops, I have decided that I would never make pork chops again without brining them first. It is the most bullet proof way of cooking pork chops, and not overcooking them and drying them out. The brine injects so much moisture and flavour. I also did the most simple brine possible.

ingredients:

4 pork chops, bone or no bone

2-3 cups water
1/2-1 cup salt
handful of peppcorns
2 bayleaf

1 apple
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp white wine vinegar

directions:

1. In a pot, heat 2-3 cups of water. Basically enough that you could full submerge the pork chops in. Put in 1/2-1 cup of salt. Don't skimp on the salt. It may seem like a lot, but you want the brine to tasty pretty salty. The salt it what will open up the cells of the pork chop and inject the flavour and moisture. Put in a handful of whole peppercorns into the water, as well as a bay leaf.

2. Let the brine cool over many hours. Or you could put it in the fridge to speed up the process. Once the brine has cooled and is room temperature, you can submerge the pork chops. Ideally you could brine them over night, or for a full day. But I assume you'd want to do it for at least 4-6 hours, but I'd recommend over night.

3. The next day, you can grill the pork chops on the grill. Or fry them in a pan. Or do like me and use a grill pan. Maybe 6 minutes each side.

4. These brined pork chops as a tad salty because of the brine, so it's great to pair it with something sweet like apple sauce. I just chopped up some apples into cubes, and put them in a pan. Added a little brown sugar, white wine vinegar. But you could also just use some apple sauce from a jar if you want.

5. For the carrots, I just tossed some cooked carrots in some honey and butter. And for the potatoes, I cubed them and tossed them in oil, salt, pepper, and some herbs. And then put them in the oven for 20 minutes at 400 degrees.

Honey Garlic Tofu with Quinoa Pilaf

Honey Garlic Tofu with Quinoa Pilaf

One of the fastest and easiest ways I found to cook tofu was to fry it, and sauce it. This honey garlic tofu was a play off of those sesame chicken dishes I used to eat a lot in university.

ingredients:

1 block firm tofu
2 tbsp corn starch
pinch of salt
pinch of ground pepper
oil

1/4 cup soy sauce
2-4 tbsp honey
2-4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp ginger
sesame seeds

directions:

1. Cut firm tofu in half, or use the whole block, depending how many people you are feeding. Cut into small cubes, about 2 centermetres each. Dredge the tofu cubes in a mixture of corn starch, salt and pepper. The corn starch coating will help create a crust on the tofu, and help the sauce adhere to it.

2. Pour a little oil into a frying pan or wok, and toss in the tofu. Mix and flip the tofu around to make sure all sides get cooked. You don't want uncooked corn starch.

3. In a small pot, combine soy sauce, honey, garlic, and ginger, and boil. Then simmer and reduce it down into more of a sauce if needed. If you want, you could add corn starch to thicken it up. If you are really pressed for time, or don't feel like making sauce, just use store bought. You can use honey garlic sauce, or even BBQ sauce.

4. Toss fried tofu cubes with sauce and make sure everything is evenly coated. Drizzle with sesame seeds for a little crunch, and to make it more presentable.