Mustard Caramelized Pork Chop

I went to Save On to buy the broccoli and lettuce but I bought the pork, potatoes and tomatoes at Mitchell's.  They are a fully independent grocer and their butcher brings in the best meat. His beef is outstanding, pork is better than most and his chicken has flavour I didn't know chicken could have! I'll get his name next time I see him, he deserves credit for the excellent job he does. Anyway, any good butcher should be able to sell you better quality meat than supermarkets and at competitive prices. It's worth the extra effort to shop every day to get fresh top quality product. You will discover flavours you didn't know ordinary meats could have. 

That is a pork chop properly trimmed. No huge lumps of fat, mostly lean meat. That's not what you get at Save On or Safeway. Not only is the trim better but the meat has flavour because the animals are allowed to move around. Muscles working is what gives meat flavour so the supermarket meats that are raised in total confinement have no flavour at all.

I mixed 1/4 tsp mustard powder (use 1/2 tsp), 1/2 tsp paprika, 1/2 tsp salt and fresh ground mixed pepper with olive oil to coat all three chops. Then I rolled the chops in it and let them sit till I cook them.  The broccoli was steamed, cooled under running water and reheated in olive oil and salt. The potatoes were boiled in salted water and finished with butter and milk. 

Vinaigrette

2 tsp olive oil

1 tsp canola oil

2 tsp red wine vinegar

1\2 tsp salt

black pepper

1/8 tsp dijon mustard - just a dot

Whisk, toss and serve.

The mustard powder caramelizes and gives the meat a flavour you just won't believe. If the broccoli isn't over cooked it will also be amazing. It's hard to screw up mashed potatoes but you can do it by using an immersion blender on them. It turns them into a thick unpalatable paste. An excellent thing to serve relatives you don't want to see too often!

A simple fresh made vinaigrette tastes better than any bottled salad dressing and it costs far less. I keep a bin of iceberg lettuce, celery and cucumber in the fridge so I only have to do is whisk a vinaigrette, chop a tomato and add a couple of handfuls of salad mix.