Hot and Sweet Grilled Pork Chops; the state of the garden

I have written often on the fact that I don’t eat spicy foods.

No sambal oelek for me, although mon mari loves it and we always buy some at the Asian supermarket.

I will have a few drops of the green Tabasco, but never the red.

It’s really the heat from peppers, capsaicin, that I avoid. Other types of heat,like from raw garlic (Aioli is very hot) or ginger I will happily eat.

In these simple marinated, grilled pork chops the heat comes from ginger and the sweet from orange marmalade.

I don’t actually eat orange marmalade either (although mon mari does) but I do like to use it in marinades for summer grilling. I buy a jar of the cheap store brand at the beginning of summer and we’re both happy.

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Hot and Sweet Grilled Pork Chops

Print Recipe

Fresh, chopped ginger adds a slightly hot, sharp flavor to this marinade. Usually you can just break off a small piece at the store.

• Author: Katie Zeller
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 15 minutes
• Total Time: 30 minutes
• Yield: 2 servings 1x
• Category: Pork
• Method: Grilling

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

•  2 – 4 pork chops, boneless, 12oz total (360gr) 
• Marinade:
• 1 tbs Dijon-style mustard
• 1/4 cup orange marmalade
• 1 tbs soy sauce
• 1 tbs sherry 
• 1 tbs ginger, minced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced

Instructions

• In small bowl whisk together the ingredients for the marinade – you need to use the whisk to break up the marmalade.
• Pour over chops and let marinate for 10 minutes (or longer…).
• Remove from marinade and cook on barbecue 10 – 15 minutes turning once. 
• Baste with any remaining marinade before turning to give better glaze. In all cases it depends on thickness of the chops. Test for doneness by slicing and peaking. Slightly pink is perfect.
• When done, remove and serve.

Notes

Substitution suggestions: white wine, vermouth or chicken stock for sherry; 1/2 – 1 tsp ground ginger for fresh; 1/2 tsp garlic powder for fresh.

Keywords: grilled pork chops

Three weeks ago I was ready to give up on my vegetable garden.

I had loads of green tomatoes but none were ripening.

My summer squash plants looked dead and I was planning on pulling them.

I had one Delicata squash out of 4 plants.

I was not a happy gardener.

All of a sudden, the summer squash came back to life, and are bigger and greener and healthier than they had been all summer. I can’t keep up and I’m putting squash in the compost rather than the plants.

This morning I counted over 20 Delicata squash and I’ve lost track of the butternut squash. The acorn squash and the big blue pumpkins are so lush with big leaves I have no idea how many I have.

As to the tomatoes….

My counter looks like this every other day:

The ones on the center island are waiting to be peeled, The Romas will be chopped and frozen in bags. The other, bigger tomatoes will be turned into soup, also frozen.

The ones on the counter either aren’t ready yet or they’re going to be eaten. I think we had pizza that night….

So far I have 15 quarts of soup in the freezer and 20 2-cup bags of chopped tomatoes.

2 weeks ago I had none.

My freezer is almost full and we’re eating tomatoes at (almost) every meal.

For me that means tomato – mayo sandwiches for breakfast.

I’m happy.