Dark Rum Pork Chop

“What’s for dinner tonight? See my simple “T-bone” pork chop with dark rum recipe.”

I tried making a 5-course Italian-Western dinner at home last week. It was my first trial making western meal at home, and felt so excited when first started. It was a hectic experience where I tried to managing everything, all at a time as hoping to have each course served pleasantly and warm. Finally, it was done quite to my expectation. They had hot steamy food, one course after another, while I was busy acting like a chef in the kitchen, and came to the dining table to have a munch or two quickly, before going back to the kitchen again for preparing food of next course. Well, my effort pays! They were very satisfied with the taste and presentation of food I’ve prepared for them (winking smile).

My menu was centred around meaty stuff with little greens that evening (winking smile). We had the jacket potato with sour cream and bacon bits as entrée. Grilled king prawns (*recipe not posted yet) was my 2nd course, while my pork chop dish was the 3rd dish (*followed by Aglio Olio pasta dish and brownie as dessert which will be posted soon).

This pork chop recipe is simple, and easy to prepare. I loved the idea of adding dark rum in the chops (learned it from my friend), the rum made the chops extensively fragrant and terrific. The aroma of dark rum in the pork chop was still pretty much in evidence, but no worries, the amount won’t make you drunk (laughing). Everyone just loved it! Dark rum is inexpensive, and useful in food making. I got my rum bottle at the duty free shop costs about S$25 for a large one.

To make your chops tender with interesting bites, pound it out using a hammer-like meat tenderizer/mallet to soften the meat. Alternatively, use some meat tenderizing powder which can be easily purchased from supermarkets. I used both methods and it yielded perfect tenderness.

Ingredients
6 pork chops (the centre cut or pork loin chops with bone), thickness of 1-2 cm.
2 teaspoon olive oil
1 tablespoon of coarse ground black pepper
3 tablespoons of Dark Rum
Sprinkles of salt and sugar

1 teaspoon of powdered meat tenderizer

2 teaspoon of Italian herbs (amount adjustable)

Knobs of butter (for pan-frying)

Method
1) Pound out each chop lightly using a meat mallet or the blunt side of the chopping knife. Place all chops in a large deep plate, and season with olive oil, salt, sugar, ground black pepper and dark rum. Make sure all sides of each chop are well seasoned. Cover plate with cling wrap and store in refrigerator. Marinate for at least 30 minutes.

2) 15 minutes before cooking: Dust pork chops with some meat tenderizing powder 15 minutes before pan-frying the chops.

3) Ready to serve dinner? Heat large frying pan with medium high fire. While waiting for pan to be heated enough, sprinkle Italian herbs on both surfaces of each chops evenly. Set aside. Add butter in the heated pan with low fire, lift up the pan and make a circular motion using strength from your wrist to have the melted butter evenly coated on the entire surface of frying pan. Put it back on fire stove, place pork chops on the frying pan (place 2 – 3 chops each time depending on the size of your pan to make sure they are placed apart with each other). Then, increase heat to medium-low fire to pan-fry the chops for about 2 – 3 minutes or until browned, then flips the chops over and repeat on the other side.

4) When both sides are done. Remove from pan and place it nicely on serving dish. Repeat step 3 for the remaining chops. When done, serve immediately.

Place on a single large serving dish or individually depends on how you want to serve them, as desired. I had my chops served individually as main course in my western dinner.

Each pork chop yields 180kcal.

Tips: When the juice of pork chop oozes out from inside, it means the chops is almost done. You can prepare to flip to the other side or heat off.