A bit of a break from posing ladies, yet today's JSVB post will still tie in with my upcoming 200th Post Spectacular (so stay tuned)!
This is one of the easiest recipes ever. Maybe you couldn't follow making authentic Ukrainian perogies (please click here to see more), or you just didn't get around to your own fresh sea urchin suprise (please click here if you have the stomach for it).
There is no excuse to miss on today's recipe. There's only two ingredients, and as long as you heat them up together, something good should come out.
PORK BRAISED IN COLA:
Ingredients:
Boneless Pork Chops
Cola drink
Pork can be a tough meat, as mosst recipes require that it be cooked completely. However, cooking pork under high heat turns it into leather. Marinating or soaking it in a cola soft drink will soften the meat. Likewise, you can braise the pork. To braise something is to sear it with high heat and then simmer it in liquid. In this case, the sweet and acidic cola will make pork supple and tasty. Braising is much faster than marinating, too.
I like to slice the raw pork into bite-sized pieces. A good trick if you have the prep time in advance is to put the chops into the freezer for an hour or two. This makes it a lot easier to make thin slices.
Chilled or not, put the slices into a large frypan with a teaspoon of cooking oil on medium heat. Brown the slices a little. Then add cola drink. I estimate that you will need 1/3 cup cola per pork chop.
Start by adding a bit of cola at a time. As the drink is mostly water, much of it will steam away. You'd think the cola would make a sticky, goopy mess, but it does not. Even so, if you really are nervous, use a nonstick frypan. Be very careful never to use high heat with a Teflon®-coated pan! High heat (above 396°F/202.2°C) causes Teflon® to release toxic fumes that can kill small housepets, and the fumes aren't that great for humans, either. Also, if you braise using diet cola, don't use a beverage sweetened with Aspartame. Aspartame is easily broken down by low cooking heat (above 86°F/30°C), which makes it go bad.
As the pork braises, the cola will reduce to an ugly, brackish syrup that sticks to the meat. If the meat is not fully cooked, just add a bit more liquid until the pork cooks. If you have too much liquid, just pour most of it away. After the liquid is reduced, continue to cook the pork until the syrup carmelizes or turns brown on the meat. Then you are done!
The pork bits will taste like tender sweet-and-sour riblets, with a surprisingly delicate flavour. You can serve them as is (along with some veggies), or you can use this as a base for some alternatives:
- Serve on oriental noodles or rice. Add soy sauce or another store-bought oriental sauce to taste. Serve with steamed green beans or oriental vegetables.
- Add a small amount of catsup, Worchestershire sauce, and Tabasco/hot sauce, to make a sweet-and-sour BBQ sauce, serve with beans and cornbread.
- I've never tried this, but you can make a French cream sauce such as Béarnaise or Blanc and serve the pork a la français.
- For curried pork, add some curry.
- I like just adding salt and pepper to taste, plus maybe a small amount of fried onion. Instead of onion, try chopped green onion, leek, or shallots fried briefly at the end, after the carmelization.
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