Season’s Eatings is a column dedicated to eating seasonally and includes recipes and tips that help you make the most of each season’s produce.
Text and photos by Liz of Carpé Season
Let’s be clear about something: I love pork. I mean, bacon’s a give-in. If you don’t like bacon, you’re probably religiously required to feel that way. But this goes beyond bacon. Ham? Yes. Tenderloin? Yes. Pulled pork? Forever and always.
In fact, when I was pregnant with our little guy, my one craving that went outside the citrus family was barbecued baby back ribs. Several times a month, I would call my husband up right as he was leaving work, and politely as possible, I would demand that he stop at Famous Dave’s and pick me up a slab of ribs. I know…super healthy and ladylike, right? But that baby had cravings, I tell you.
And pork chops are right up there for me. And they are just meant to be grilled. Grilled pork chops give you this salty smokiness that is just begging to be paired with summer goodness. Drizzle it with a rhubarb glaze, pour on a savory raspberry sauce, or throw a sombrero on it in the form of some Mexican marinade and a stuffing made out of some of the best summer has to offer us: corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, jalapenos, and more.
A few years ago, my husband and I taught in South Korea for a year, and when we returned, I was more than eager to get back to cooking on anything beyond two burners: which is all that our high-rise apartment building there had to offer. One of the first things I made when we came back was a random internet recipe for stuffed pork chops on the grill. And while they were good, the idea of stuffed pork chops has been sort of sitting in the back of my mind ever since, wanting to be improved.
And so the first thing I did was to marinate the pork for several hours. I used my favorite chicken fajita marinade. This was an important step because by the time you stuff the pork chops, they’re pretty thick and take a little extra time on the grill, which can cause them to dry out when you’re not looking because your one-year-old is climbing up your dilapidated back steps for the hundredth time instead of playing with, you know, actual toys.
For the stuffing, I sautéed onions, jalapeno, and garlic for just a minute, and followed that with diced bell peppers, tomatoes, fresh shucked corn and then took it south of the border with some lime juice, red wine vinegar, cumin, seasoning, and of course, my favorite and yours, cilantro.
All together, it’s a Mexican flavor explosion in your mouth, with moist pork chops punctuated by bites of summer vegetables. Pork love at first bite. While the pork chops were grilling away, I made up this quick chopped simple salsa; it literally took me five minutes, and I can only hope you do the same.
So hit up your local farmers market for the makings of the stuffing and salsa, and fire up your grill because you know pork is top notch too.
Recipe by Carpé Season
Ingredients
- 4 tbsp. fresh lime juice (about 1 hearty lime)
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tbsp. onion, diced
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
- 1/2 (heaping) tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tbsp. olive oil
- 1/2 c. onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/2 jalapeno, seeded and deveined, minced (use a whole if you like more heat)
- 1/2 c. bell pepper, diced
- 1/2 c. tomatoes (about 6 grape tomatoes), diced and drained (see instructions below)
- 1 c. fresh corn, shucked
- 1 tsp. red wine vinegar
- juice of 1/2 lime
- 1/4 tsp. ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/4 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped
- 4 thick pork chops (look for chops about an inch thick)
- 12 toothpicks, soaked in water for 20 mintues
- 10-15 grape tomatoes, quartered and drained
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- heaping 1/4 c. green onions, white and green parts, diced
- 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
- handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
- juice of 1/2 lime (more or less to taste)
- splash red wine vinegar
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix all of the marinade ingredients together in a shallow dish. Coat and place pork chops in marinade, and let sit, covered, in the fridge for at least 4 hours. If you remember, try to rotate the pork chops around once or twice so they all get a turn on the bottom.
- Dice up all of your ingredients and have them ready first.
- To drain the tomatoes, place them in a colander or mesh strainer, and sprinkle with a little salt. Gently mix around and allow to sit in the strainer over a bowl for 5-10 minutes.
- Then, heat up your grill to medium. If using charcoal, do your best to not have it get too hot.
- As the grill heats, prepare the stuffing. In a large sauté pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat. When hot, add the onions, garlic, and jalapeno, and stir for one minute. Then, add the bell peppers and tomatoes, and cook over high heat for one minute, stirring frequently. Stir in your corn, red wine vinegar, lime juice, cumin, salt and pepper and cook for 1-2 more minutes.
- Remove from heat and stir in chopped cilantro. Allow to cool.
- Remove pork chops from marinade. Then, cut a pocket in each pork chop. Using a sharp (narrow) knife, carefully slide knife in to the middle of the pork chop almost to the bone, being careful to keep the knife parallel to your work surface. Use a sawing motion to widen the pocket, being careful not to pierce the top or bottom of the pork chop.
- Stuff each pork chop as full as you can, then seal edges with your water-soaked toothpicks. I used a "sewing" motion of poking down then back up with the toothpick to close the pork chop.
- Once stuffed, place on the grill, flipping frequently with tongs, being careful to not let the outside get burned. Cook for about 15 minutes until pork chops feel firm and are no longer pink when (gently) poked into.
- While your pork chops grill, prepare salsa. Drain tomatoes as instructed above for the stuffing. Once drained, mix tomatoes together with the garlic, green onions, cumin, cilantro, lime juice, and vinegar.
- Remove toothpicks from pork chops. Serve pork chops with chopped salsa. We also enjoyed these over a bed of jasmine rice flavored with lime juice, cumin, and cilantro.
