Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Partial Fail/Partial Win


Looks tasty. It was easy. Great, fresh ingredients. What went wrong?

I over-cooked the pork chops on the grill. They were like leather. But the flavor was still good, even if they were dry and tough. They were brined in a salt-water/orange juice solution, then seasoned with salt, pepper, cumin and coriander. Maybe the acid in the OJ toughened them up???

The corn was fresh from the market, as were the peppers. The corn was roasted on the grill...great! The peppers and some shallots were sauted in butter, the corn was added to heat thru. A final whiz of lime juice was added at the end. The lime and this type of pepper didn't play well together...and combined with the corn, the flavor was off and strange.

Oh well...no biggie...mistakes happen...moving on....

3 comments:

DancerInDC said...

At least it was still a filling meal, and I enjoyed the very fresh flavor of the corn & peppers.

Tony said...

How long was your brine for? After cooking when you touched the the meat to check for done-ness, did it feel plump, or did it feel tough?

ScottE. said...

@Tony: The brine was for an hour. I knew almost immediately that I was overcooking the chops. I dropped them on the grill and ran inside...I knew the grill was too hot and I was away from the grill for a minute too long. They were tough. Lesson learned. I need some patience to the let the heat mellow a bit, or be willing to move the meat to the side of the fire for a slower cooking process. Oh well...live/learn.