Sear my chop

I came upon pork later in my post-college dinner preparation years. I shied away from it because every pork chop I ever ate as a child was cooked for a long time at very high heat, ensuring that neither I nor the lurking trichinellosis could or would survive on it. Mom was deathly afraid of poisoning her family... I think her foe, the pork chop, made its appearances to give us a change of pace from chicken. To her credit, I didn't know what food poisoning was until my first year after college. Though let the record show pork was not involved, rather my lack of concern for prompt refrigeration.

But to my dinner. I was having an "oh, crap, the nice pork chop I ambitiously bought from Sisel's last week needs to be cooked" moment. So I took a gander at the contents of my pantry and fridge and assembled apples, ginger, rice, and chard...

I started the Trader Joe's "Brown Rice Medley" with 2 c. water, 1 c. rice plus 1/2 tsp "better than bullion" chx flavored paste. Peeled and sliced the apples thick, threw the raw pork chop and my apple slices into the skillet with a bit of melted butter. Everything seemed off to a good start. But it's been a while since I tackled the pork chop. At least a year.


When the pork chop was browned on the bottom, I stirred the apples around a bit and flipped the pork, let that brown on the bottom, then popped the whole thing (with lid) into a 350F oven for about 10-15 min while the rice cooked.

While that cooked, I chopped the chard and thinly sliced about 1 tsp fresh, peeled ginger.
I took the skillet out of the oven and removed the pork chop, turned on a burner and cooked the chard with the ginger while the apples were still in there over medium heat in the liquid that had been released from the apples. The chard cooks fast, stir it a few times and sprinkle in about 1/4-1/2 tsp salt as it cooks.

Easy, moist, good flavor combo. That ginger brings the chard, apples, and pork together well.