Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Porky Tails - How make three Pork chops stretch to 2 meals.

Pork Chops ( 2 meals from 1 pork pack)

Serves: 3 twice  Cooking Time: 1 hour  Cost: $10 pack of pork

Getting the most bang for your buck is an old saying that has never been more applicable in these tough economic times. Getting two meals out of three pork chops is a pretty good start!

Easy, simple idea - I cut the tails off the chops to create 1x chop and 1x pork finger out of each chop. When served no one even notices the tails are missing. Now you can have 2 meals out of them.

Method: See below for Recipes 

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1. Pack of three chops: I got this pack from The Mad Butcher: Silverdale, Great value, best quality meat, check them out!





2. Single pork chop - Mmmm, looks good already. I love pork!
Look at the chop as having 2 parts - the chop and the tail...
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3. Cut the tail off the chop 







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3.b You will end up with this - 1 chop and 1 tail ( finger)







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4.a This is a really large chop - yes it is in the pack. The easiest way to   deal with this sized chop is to gently pull, ease, the chop side to separate it from the finger side. See pics below





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4.b You can see the natural division between chop and large tail   







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4.c Cut along that divide and you will be left with a chop and a large tail. I cut the tail into two smaller pieces. 






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 5. These are the four tails ( pork fingers ) which make a different meal option for another time. 






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5. a Stack them onto a small tray to go for another meal. 
** TIP:  You can wash and reuse Butcher trays, dry them well, and stack them in my cupboard. These trays save me buying freezer containers. They are fantastic for freezing home-made hamburger patties because they keep them flat while freezing. Once frozen you can stack patties into a bread bag for easy storage.

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5.a Place a bag over the tray of Pork Fingers and place into the freezer. 







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6. Now you have the Pork Chops - and they still look delicious! In fact you can sometimes pay extra for gourmet 'trimmed' style pork chops...
How these got that way can be your little secret - no one need know unless you tell them. 

Hard to believe that these two photos (5.a , 6 ) came from the one tray of pork chops in photo 1 - talk about getting good bang for your buck !!

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7. I used to fry pork chops, but one day I had some stock left over so I slow cooked them in the fry pan in stock liquid - best pork chops we ever had. I haven't fried pork chops since. 
Slow cooked pork chops are absolutely delicious and amazingly easy. You just need an awesome cooking liquid to cook them in - easy az!
see my recipe below 



Recipe: Slow cooked Pork Chops 

Ingredients: 
Pork chops ( I use this recipe and method for Pork Fingers too 
Stock (cooking liquid) You can use your imagination here - what ever you put into the stock will add flavour to the pork chops. Here is my usual stock recipe for pork; 

Stock Recipe for Pork: 

2 cups boiling water, 
1 pkt cup-a-soup ( usually chicken, but vegetable works well too)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon marmalade ( any kind will do or Apricot jam makes a good substitute) 
1 tablespoon sweet chilli sauce - for a bit of heat. Add some real chilli - or not - to suit your own taste.
1 teaspoon soy sauce 
season with pepper and a small pinch of salt - not too much as there are salty ingredients in there already.

Method:   
Stir all the ingredients together for the stock mixture in jug. Place pork chops in a deep fry pan ( it has to be able to contain the stock) Pour stock over chops and cook on medium until stock starts to bubble. Turn down to low setting and gently simmer for about an hour - turn chops regularly to allow both sides to absorb the delicious stock. As the level of water goes down you can add more boiling water ** Maintain at least a half inch of surface liquid in the pan while cooking - DO NOT LET PAN DRY OUT -  or the chops will stick fast!

Optional: 

Scrub a few potatoes and kumera, cut them in half and place cut side down into the stock and cook beside the chops. They will absorb the stock and taste amazing. Serve them with the pork, my husband loves to mash the potatoes and kumera into the stock gravy on the plate. Delicious!
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