Intuiting with Pork

Intuiting : understanding or working out by instinct.

One of my favorite ways to cook is by intuition. Intuitive cooking doesn’t use measuring spoons, exact timing, or even a recipe. Instead, you use what you know about the relative cook times of various foods. For example, a pork chop takes less time to cook than Brussels sprouts. Searing and finishing in the oven takes less time that just cooking in the oven.

With an evening meeting to plan around, the only thing I knew was that I wanted to use pork. Other than that, I knew I wanted something simple, heavy on the veggies (#ThxNoom), and tasty.

Fast-forward to after the meeting. I had to do important things like collect eggs from our hens and close them up for the night, and choose appropriate cooking music (very important!).

Pork goes with a wide variety of veggies. It helps that I had Brussels sprouts, red cabbage, sweet onion, and mushrooms. Having a variety of veggies around creates opportunities. I used a cast iron skillet at medium-high heat to sear for a few minutes then I popped the pan in a preheated oven (400°F) while I cooked the pork chop.

Pork is very flexible and lean. I let it come to room temperature with a little kosher salt on both sides with fresh cracked pepper on one side (the other side will be peppered in the pan). I chose to sear it in cast iron in a little olive oil and butter making sure to sear the fat on the side of the chop.


Ingredients

  • 1 center cut boneless pork chop
  • Olive oil
  • Butter
  • Brussels sprouts
  • Mushrooms
  • 1/2 Sweet onion
  • 1/2 Red chili pepper
  • Kosher salt and fresh pepper to taste

Directions

  1. Pre-heat 2 cast iron skillets
  2. Pre-heat oven to 400°F
  3. Let the pork chop come to room temperatire with kosher salt on both sides and fresh cracked pepper on one side (the other side will be peppered in the pan)
  4. Clean and cut the veggies
  5. With a cast iron skillet at medium-high heat, add olive oil and sear vegetables together for a few minutes until charred then pop the pan into a preheated oven (400°F) while cooking pork chop
  6. With a cast iron skillet on medium heat, add olive oil and sear until pretty on both sides. Add butter about 1 min into the cook. Use touch and an instant-read thermometer to verify doneness (~ 145°F)

prjeffwilson