Last week I had some pork cubes in the freezer that I needed to use, so I looked in my magazines for an idea and came across a pork chop recipe that looked adaptable.
It calls for the pork to be marinated in a mix of orange marmalade and mustard for 4 hours, or overnight. I decided to have a go, and while everything turned out well and Mr. Oso really enjoyed it, I found myself not liking it all that much. I think the next time I do something like this I'll stick to a more Chinese-styled plum sauce with soy and crushed garlic marinade, or with an apple cider brine.
Anyhow, the pork was very lean, and a great source of protein, even though it had the added sugar of the marmalade. Speaking of which, the recipe called for the use of a whole small jar, and I halved that amount and just added water to make the marinade cover the meat. It's always a good thing to look at something and say "I don't need to use that amount, I can cut it and substitute and end up with less sugar/salt in my meal".
Because I'm working with an electric stove top and oven it is hard to get a nice grilled result, but I managed to make a decent product all the same. I browned the skewers in a cast iron pot with some very hot rice-bran oil and then placed them in a ceramic oven dish and into the hot oven. After about 20 mins in the oven I took out the ceramic dish, drained the meat juices from the bottom and turned the oven to the 'Grill' function. I then laid the skewers across the top of the baking dish so that they were sitting rotisserie style and grilled them from above, turning over a few times.
With the marinade and meat juices from baking I de-glazed the cast iron pot and made a thick sauce to go with the skewers. I strained it to get rid of the rind from the marmalade and the mustard seeds and served it spooned over the vegetables and pork.
For a side I grabbed what vegetables were in the fridge, which turned out to be sweet potato, brussels sprouts and French beans. Since the oven was on anyway I roasted them in a splash of olive oil and salt. The brussels sprouts were my favourite thing out of this meal. The green beans were really lovely roasted also.
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