Butcher's Lunch Part One: Pork Chop

When heading into my local butcher's shop to grab something for lunch the other week, I avoided the sandwich trap. I was working from home and could use a little break from the items on my to do list at my job, so instead I bought myself a pork chop and a marinated mozzarella salad. I rarely get to eat pork at home as my fiancee does not like it. Unless it is pulled pork... or prosciutto ... or ... well she mostly doesn't like it! Making a small pork chop for one takes no time at all. It certainly alleviated any stresses from work to take 10 minutes from my day to make lunch and it tasted great. I thought it would be interesting to see what types of lunches I would be able to make from food just at my local butcher, and so this will be the first installment of a series of "Butcher's Lunches".

Ingredients (serves 1):

1 pork chop bone-in

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 mozzarella salad (cheese, roasted pepper, basil, olive oil)

sea salt & black pepper

1. Add some of the mozzarella salad to your plate. If your butcher doesn't have a pre-made version, mix the following ingredients: mozzarella balls or sliced mozzarella, roasted red peppers sliced, a few basil leaves, and olive oil. Season with black pepper.

2. Season your pork chop with sea salt, black pepper, coriander, and cumin. Rub over the whole chop.

3. Heat a pan over a medium heat. Add the olive oil and the pork. Add a drop of your broth to make sure the pork doesn't dry out (which is often a complaint of most anti-pork eaters).

4. Cook for 5 to 7 minutes, adding more broth as needed. Then flip the chop and cook for another 3 to 7 minutes depending on its thickness. The same rules for seeing if a steak is cooked apply to all meats, even pork. Check out step 6 of my Cooking a Steak post to determine when the chop is cooked properly to your liking.

5. Remove the chop, add to your plate of mozzarella salad and enjoy!