Liz's Pork Chops & Cauliflower Mash

Today is Tuesday.

While we were renovating our house, we lived with my in-laws for seven (7) months. I LIVED WITH MY MOTHER-IN-LAW for seven incredibly short, easy breezy, fun-filled months. No I'm just kidding. Honestly it was fine and I recommend to anyone that if you and your in-laws...don't...always recognize each other's finer points, go move into their home for an extended period of time. Now I am their favorite child AND I am able to freely yell at, argue with, and lovingly make fun of my mother-in-law like she's my own mom. Lots of exaggerated eye rolling. It's swell. And I even got her to start keeping her butter out on the counter! See, she listens to me. Good Rose. 

My one condition for moving into someone else's house was that I had to be in charge of the kitchen. You should have seen me lugging over bins of pans and spices and utensils that I thought I couldn't live without (and it was only supposed to be for eight weeks!), it was hilarious...like I thought I was moving to a remote tent in the wilderness and couldn't be without my knives and Hungarian paprika and such. But, cooking kept me feeling happy and in control during those months when I was kitchen-less. Plus, she also folded all our towels and watched my kids a lot. Pretty, pretty Rose.

Rose's favorite food that I made in all that time was my pork chops. She couldn't get enough of these things. This isn't me saying this, this is her line: "They are better than what you get at a restaurant." See I am just repeating what she said for the internet to see, not claiming it myself. And Rose dines at only the finest restaurants in life so this isn't a Ponderosa kind of compliment. So just remember, if I ever need to live with you for half the year, I will repay you in pork chops.  

Liz's Pork Chops

Ingredients

6 pork chops  

1 egg I needed an egg yolk for something yesterday so I just used the leftover white tonight. It's still sticky, so it worked.

1/2 cup flour You can make this flour-less! Either add more cheese or grind up something crunchy and gluten-free that you have in the pantry. I have used Wisps for Rose a few times.

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. garlic powder

1/2 tsp. dried parsley

1/2 tsp. ground pepper

1/4 cup Parmesan cheese

Olive oil

Optional garnish: sliced apples and onions Tonight I used apples and shallots. Jazz hands.

Instructions 

1) Preheat oven to 400°F. Set up two bowls: one with an egg lightly beaten with a little bit of water. In the other stir together flour, salt, garlic powder, parsley, pepper, and cheese. 

You probably didn't need this boring visual.

2) Dredge each chop in the egg (turn to coat both sides) and then in the four mixture (turn to coat both sides, press down a bit). Sprinkle a bit of extra flour on any bald spots.

Like a little assembly line

3) Heat a cast iron skillet to medium-high heat. Give it a few minutes to get really hot. Swirl olive oil around the pan and add your chops. It should sizzle if hot enough. Cook chops for 3 minutes, flip and cook 3 more minutes.

4) Meanwhile, slice your apples and onions. Add them to the pan when you flip your meat. After the 6 minutes on the stove, stir up the apples and onions. Poke your thickest chop in the thickest part with your meat thermometer set to "pork". Put the pan in the oven. My chops were ready 6 minutes later. Let them rest for 5 minutes or so. Bone-in chops will take longer in the oven, but are otherwise no different to cook. Top with garnish.

This thing beeps at you when the meat is ready, like a magic cooking beeper.

Goodness that is pretty meat.

Cauliflower Mash 

Ingredients

1 large head cauliflower

3 T. salted butter, soft

1 1/4 tsp. salt

Instructions

1) Set pot on stove with about an inch of water and a metal steamer insert.

2) Rinse cauliflower and chop into equally-sized florets.

3) Once water is boiling, add florets and cover tightly. Steam for 12 minutes, or until fork-tender. Stir about half way through. Reserve cooking liquid into a measuring cup.

4) Add half the florets and 1/2 cup cooking liquid to a food processor. Puree until smooth. Add in the rest of the florets and 1/4 - 1/2 cup more cooking liquid, trying to use as little as possible. Puree. Add softened butter and salt to the processor as it blends. 

5) If your main course is not ready yet, put mash into an oven-safe serving bowl and throw it in on the bottom rack of the oven to keep warm.  

Add more liquid if you like a creamier mash. I personally like a few lumps.