Garlic & Brown Sugar Pork Chops

 

Recently when I was doing my online Grocery order I noticed that Ocado had Tomahawk Pork Steaks. I ended up ordering two of them.  They were a bit pricier than normal chops, but I had high expectations. 

Salt dried aged pork tomahawk steak from M&S.  They feature outdoor bred pork from Hampshire. I have always enjoyed the quality of M&S goods. I always said if I won the lottery I would only ever shop at M&S.  They have excellent food and other products. Just my opinion.

 I think calling them Tomahawk Pork Steaks was a bit of a stretch. Basically it was just another way to describe a bone in pork loin chop which has had the rib bone "french trimmed." 

I decided to give them the sheet pan method of cooking.  I love sheet pan cooking. It involves very little preparation and little to no clean up.  I am all for that!

 

I had enough of fiddly cooking  when I cooked at the Manor.  I can do fiddly along with the best of them and occasionally I do like to fancy things up a bit here at home.

In my normal day to day life, however, I like to keep things simple. Life is far too short to complicate things that don't need to be complicated.  Things like every day meals.

I found the original recipe on a blog called Dinner Then Dessert.  I cut it down to size and adapted it to ingredients and methods, etc. that I felt would work for me. 

I actually didn't change a lot really. I used a large baking potato instead of Yukon Golds. I am not really sure what Yukon Golds are. We don't have them over here. I understand they are a yellow fleshed potato that lends itself beautifully to roasting and mashing.

I love the idea of using garlic and brown sugar.  It reminded me of my favourite Italian Brown Sugar Chicken Thighs. I have not made them in a long time. (Time to change that!)

The potatoes are chunked and tossed together with some oil and seasoning. You then scatter them on a baking sheet. I lined the sheet with foil so there was no sticking, and again, an easy clean up afterwards.

 

I think you could add a peeled and chunked sweet potato as a substitution for half of the regular potato. Sweet potatoes go very well with pork.

The chops get massaged with a mix of the leftover oil from the potatoes, brown sugar and plenty of garlic.  And I do mean plenty.  Garlic and pork have a natural affinity for each other.

 

When my family was growing up I used to do a roast of pork which was highly flavoured with garlic.  I would take a sharp knife and make deep slits down into the flesh of the roast. 

Slivered cloves of garlic would be pushed into these slits.  Oh my but it always came out some delicious!!  The pork would be beautifully flavoured in and out, and the gravy was fantastic.

 

You can do the same treatment with a beef sirloin roast. Trust me, it will be fabulously delicious, and you may end up with a brand-new favourite way of cooking it. 

These are just little tips of adding tastiness to things that I have accrued through the years.  My mom always said I had a special knack for making even simple things taste incredible.

 

I just like eating delicious food. It is the glutton in me. If you love to cook and you love to eat, you will probably have a natural aptitude for deliciousness.

Its a gift I guess.  But I come by it naturally.  I've also had lots and lots and lots of practice through the years.

I was not always a great cook. There was a lot of trial and error in the early years.  I have cooked some pretty awful food in my life time and my family has eaten rubber chicken.

I think though, because it was something I loved to do, I soaked all the knowledge I could up like a sponge. By watching others and reading I grew in knowledge and waxed strong.  Anyone can be a great cook. You just need to love food and eating. That's my opinion anyways!

 

Garlic & Brown Sugar Pork Chops

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Yield: 2

Author: Marie Rayner

prep time: 5 Mincook time: 35 Mininactive time: 5 Mintotal time: 45 Min

This is a delicious sheet pan supper sized perfectly for two people. You end up with perfectly seasoned and baked chops and crispy potatoes, with next to no clean up. Quantities can easily be multiplied to serve more people.

Ingredients

• 1 large baking potato, washed and cut into 1-inch chunks
• 1 1/2 TBS canola oil
• 2 bone in pork chops
• 1 TBS minced garlic
• 1/4 cup (50g) soft light brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 tsp salt, divided
• 1/4 tsp black pepper, divided

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/ gas  mark 5.  Line a baking tray with some aluminium foil and spray it lightly with some low fat cooking spray.
2. Put the potato chunks into a bowl. Toss together with the oil, half of the salt and 1/2 of the pepper.  Scatter on the baking sheet.
3. To the oil left in the bowl, add the brown sugar and garlic.  Season the chops with the remaining salt and pepper.  Put them into the bowl with the garlic/brown sugar/oil mixture and rub them to coat.  Place them onto the baking sheet, nestling them in between the potatoes.  Drizzle any remaining mixture in the bowl over top.
4. Cook for 30 to 35 minutes until the pork is cooked through and the potatoes are tender. If desired you can flash it underneath the broiler for a minute to really gild the chops.
5. Let rest for 3 to 5 minutes before serving with your favourite vegetables on the side.

notes:

If desired you can use half cubed sweet potatoes and half baking potato. Delicious.

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We both really enjoyed these delicious, flavourful and tender pork chops. I loved that there was little to no clean up. I served them with some frenched runner beans and mashed turnips. Yummy yummy!

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