Swiss-Style Pork Chops; sunrise, sunset

My mother never grilled steak.

Well, actually, she never grilled anything…. neither did my father. It just wasn’t something they did. The only time we had steak is out to dinner in a restaurant.

The only way my mother cooked steak was as Swiss Steak.

For those who aren’t familiar with Swiss steak: get a really cheap steak, pound it until it cries for mercy, dip it in flour, fry it hard and fast, then smother it with onions, peppers, tomatoes and braise it for a few hours.

I loved it.

Mon mari refuses to let me do that to any cut of steak. If it’s not good enough to grill, medium-rare, he doesn’t want it in the house. Period.

So I do it to pork chops.

We’re both happy and I don’t have to torture the meat first.

Swiss-Style Pork Chops

Total time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

• 2 – 3 boneless pork chops, (12oz, 360gr total weight)
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1/2 red bell pepper, roughly chopped
• 1 onion, roughly chopped
• 1 rib celery, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 3/4 cups (15oz, 450gr) tomatoes, roughly chopped, with juice
• 1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Instructions:

Heat oil in a heavy skillet with a tight-fitting lid. Add chops and brown on both sides, about 6 minutes total.

Move chops to one side (stack them up) and add vegetables to pan. Sauté, stirring, for 1 – 2 minutes, just to soften slightly.

Arrange chops on vegetables.

Add tomatoes, their juices, paprika and Worcestershire sauce to the pan.

Bring to a boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer 35 minutes.

Uncover, cook down a bit if you like, and serve.

Note: For really tender chops, braise for another 30 minutes or cook in a crock pot.

I used to say, back in the beginning of time, that the only time I saw the sun rise was when I was still up.

That is no longer true.

Partly because I have dogs and live in farm country where the norm is to be up and about early and partly because of where we are in our time zone, I’m regularly up, out and about before the sun.

Today is the shortest day of the year.

When I lived in Minneapolis the sun rose around 7:45 am and set around 4:30 pm.

When I live in Ireland the sun rose around 8:40 am and set around 4:30 pm.

Here the sun rises around 8:30 am and sets around 5:20 pm.

I must say, I like the longer afternoons, and I really like the late evenings in summer when it’s light well past 10 pm.

I’m trying to look on the, well, bright side about having to be up before the sun this time of year.

After I walked the dogs this morning I had a few minutes to take my camera for another wee walk.

Winter sunrises don’t seem to last nearly as long as summer sunsets.

It’s also not as warm and not much chance I’ll be sipping a glass of wine while I’m enjoying it….

Still……

It is a rather nice start to the day.

Last update on December 21, 2015

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