Couscous with Pork

This started from an experiment with last night's dinner. I had initially planned on doing some nice stuffed pork chops, but one thing led to another, and A: the pork chops were to thin to slice and stuff, B: for some reason the only rice I had was long grain brown rice, which takes FOREVER to cook, and I didn't have time for it.

So, let's get down to business, shall we?

4-6 Pork chops with bones, roughly 1/2-3/4 inch in thickness
1 Cup of couscous
2 Cups of water
1 TBSP of butter
1 Cup yellow onion, finely chopped
1 Cup of sliced black olives
1/4 Cup of juice from the can of olives
2 TSP garlic powder
1 TSP parsley
1 TSP salt
1 TSP black pepper
1 TSP creole seasoning

1: Bring the water, butter, creole seasoning, and 1 teaspoon of the garlic powder to a boil, add the couscous, remove from heat, and stir until water is absorbed. Stir in the olives and set aside.

2: Find your favorite shallow metal baking dish, such as a cookie sheet, and line this with aluminum foil, shiny side down. Dump the couscous onto the foil and spread to roughly 1/2 inch thick upon the pan.

3: Season the raw pork chops with remaining garlic powder, parsley, salt, and black pepper, and arrange these carefully on top of the couscous so that as much couscous as possible is covered, without overlapping the meat.

4: Sprinkle the chopped onion around the dish, and then gently pour the juice from the olive can over the pork chops.

5: Place in the middle of a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes, or until pork chops are cooked through.

6: Remove from oven, use a spatula to serve couscous and pork as one dish, and enjoy!

This gives you a nice savory bed of moist, fluffy couscous, and delicious pork chops in one dish. Thinking back on it now, I wish I had done some mushroom or pork-flavored gravy to drizzle over top of the finished product, but it was tasty regardless. Lately I have found lots of uses for couscous, usually as a substitute for rice when I need a slightly different flavor or texture in the dish that rice doesn't have. Make sure the test the couscous in this recipe before putting it on the cookie sheet, if it is underdone (IE: not enough water was used, or too much couscous was used) it will taste like you are eating wet sand, which is never appreciated.

And yes, when I get some thicker pork chops, I will definitely do a recipe for stuffed pork chops with my rice and sausage stuffing. Nothing says delicious like stuffing meat with meat.

~bon appétit~

Pork Chops with Gravy

This is a rather simple recipe, and though I would normally do things from scratch, this one... I cheated on... But it turned out well, so I felt it deserved to be mentioned here as one of the recipes.

3-4 Boneless Pork Chops
1 3/4 Cups of water
1 Package of your favorite dry gravy mix (I used McCormick Pork Gravy Mix)
2 TBSP Butter or Margarine
1 TSP black pepper
1/2 cup chopped yellow onion
1 clove of finely diced garlic
1/4 TSP Parsley
1 TBSP Worcestershire Sauce

1: Set aside pork chops. Place a deep skillet on the stove, and add all ingredients except the pork chops and Worcestershire Sauce. Mix well and heat to just barely boiling.

2: Gently place the pork chops into the boiling gravy mixture. Cover and reduce heat slightly, and allow the chops to simmer in the boiling mixture for roughly 20 minutes, flipping the meat every 4-6 minutes.

3: With 5 minutes left in the cooking time, coat the top of the pork chops with the Worcestershire Sauce. Reduce heat to a gentle simmer, but remain covered.

4: Remove pork chops from the skillet, and drizzle the remaining gravy mixture over the boneless chops. Serve and enjoy.

Now, I would suggest serving this with mashed potatoes or even on a bed of rice, but that is up to you. This allows you to use the gravy as a way to bring the entire dish together as one.

~bon appétit~