Sooo, welcome back to my blog! I would like to apologize for the inconsistency in my posting schedule on here. I’ve been rather busy these last couple of weeks and haven’t updated my blog in a while, but now I’m back again with an uploading schedule to make sure that I post something every week. Fingers crossed that I will be able to follow it! This post was briefly touched upon in my last post “Easy Peasy Pasta”. As I wrote back then me and my boyfriend spent the Swedish National Day out in the forest, camping. Our camping site was situated at the shore of a beautiful lake, located about an hours drive from Stockholm (were we live). It took us about another hour on foot from were we parked our car to our camping site at which we arrived a little after 5 o’clock in the evening. The camping site was beautiful, quiet (when we arrived) and remote enough to ensure some privacy from other hikers. As we learned during the night it was also home to a variety of birds that all decided to honor us with an eight hour concert. As the title might suggest I’m a big music lover, especially of Queens music but this was a little bit to much, even for my taste. The birds were so loud that both me and my boyfriend had troubles sleeping. Despite this, we had a lovely time and I can’t wait to go back out there. I will just make sure that I bring some ear plugs the next time :-).
The first thing we did was to put up our tent and then we started a fire to cook the food that we brought with us. I’d made double marinated pork chops that we grilled on stones close to the fire, and my boyfriend cooked up a traditional bannock bread that was grilled on a log close to the fire as well. To go with the pork chops I just brought some sliced zucchini that i grilled on a stick over the fire. For dessert we just grilled up some peaches with a little bit of honey and butter on them. It was just so simple but man, it tasted sooo good! The meat was incredibly juicy thanks to marinating it twice (once in a brine and later in a thicker marinade) and grilled zucchini is always a firm favorite of mine.
Recipe for the double-marinated pork chops:
Marinade/brine:
- 400 ml water
- 2 tablespoons of Japanese soy sauce
- 1 tbs of chili bean paste (or sriracha)
- 1 bay leaf
- 0.5 tbs honey
- 2 teaspoons onion powder
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder (or one clove of crushed garlic)
- 2.5 centimeters/ 1 inch of ginger
- Lemon peel from half a lemon
- 2-4 pork chops of good quality (preferably with the bone still attached)
Marinate in the refrigerator over night.
Second marinade:
- 150 ml Japanese soy sauce
- 50 ml balsamic vinegar
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 clove of garlic
- 100 ml honey
- 10 g freshly grated ginger
- 1 teaspoon chili powder/ cayenne pepper
Make the second marinade at the same time as you make the first one and refrigerate until the following day. Cook all the ingredients in a sauce pan on medium heat on the stove until the marinade thickens, about 30 minutes. Let the marinade cool completely and put it in the refrigerator overnight. On the second day you just drain of the brine and add the second marinade and let it marinate for a couple of hours. You can of course cook these pork chops on the stove as well as och a grill or an open fire. Just make sure that you adjust the cooking time depending on which cooking method you use. Our pork chops took about 40 minutes to cook at the side of the fire with indirect heating.
If you cook the pork chops on the stove/ in the oven they will be done in approximately 20 minutes. I would just sear them on each side in a cast iron skillet on the stove, and then finish cooking them in the oven at 175 C/340 F for about 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the pork chops. When they are cooked properly you should let them rest in aluminum foil for 5-10 minutes before digging in. At home I would serve them with a potato salad or potato gratin, just something easy and creamy. I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you have any questions, just let me know!
Cheers!
Malinsfood 