Grilled Pork Chop with Homemade Pesto and Poached Egg Yolk

Posted by kenny Friday, December 3, 2010 0 comments

Announcement:
I'm officially a proud owner of food processor!

It was one of the awesome deals I got during Black Friday,
$69.99 for a 7-cup white processor,
As I search through the internet now - just to make sure my $$ was saved,
The cheapest offer comes in $99.95, hooray Black Friday!

Eager to see how good this baby works,
The very next day, I made pesto again,
This time not with a blender, but with this new addition in the kitchen,
Ecstatically, no more excessive shaking of my blender.

Ingredients (for 2 large portion)?

Pesto:
1 small package/18 g/66 oz of basil
3 garlic cloves
1/2 cup of Parmesan
1/2 cup of toasted pine nuts
2/3+ cup of olive oil
Some sea salts
Some freshly ground black pepper

Pork chops:
2 thick-cup pork chops
Some sea salts
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some smoked paprika
Some olive oil

Pasta:
Enough pasta of your choice for two people
1 medium/small carrot
1/3 onion
1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
Some sea salts
Some freshly ground black pepper
Some olive oil
(Pot of hot water plus some regular salts)

Poached Eggs:
2 Eggs
Some rice vinegar
(and a pot of hot water)

How?

Let's make the pesto first (I just can't wait to try out my food processor!),
Simply, yes, nice and easy,
Roughly chop the basil, cube or grate the Parmesan,
Peel and roughly chop the garlic cloves, toast the pine nuts,
Toss all these ingredients into the food processor.

Give it a few pulses,
Add some salts and pepper,
Now slowly pour in olive oil while mixing at the same time,
I used at least 2/3 cup of olive oil,
You'll have to be the judge for the exact amount,
Just keep pouring if the mixture appears too dry.

For the pork chops,
Season both sides with some salts, pepper, smoked paprika, and brush with oil -

In the meantime,
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit,
Boil a big pot of water for the pasta,
Once boiled, add a spoonful of salts and cook the pasta according to package instruction,
Later on, drain well and set aside.

Brush additional olive on a grill pan, turn to high heat,
When the grill gets sizzling hot,
Sear both sides of the pork chops for about 3 minutes each,
Once that's done, transfer the whole thing into the oven for 10 minutes,
So that the center part can be cooked through.
After 10 minutes, remove from oven and let the meat rest for at least 5 minutes.

For the pasta,
Finely chopped the onion and carrot first.
Have a pan or skillet ready, drizzle some olive oil, turn to medium high heat,
Toss in chopped onion and sprinkle some salts and red pepper flakes,
Cook till the onion turns translucent, then add the carrot,
Sprinkle more salts and wait till the carrot softens.

Add the drained pasta into the pan, give it a quick stir,
Turn the heat off and mix in 1 tablespoon of butter,
The pasta can be on the light side, which is totally fine,
Why? Remember the pesto sauce we made earlier?
Just pour that all over the pasta and it'll be very delicious!

As for the poached egg yolk,
Ok...I admit, it was meant to be poached egg, I mean the whole thing,
Somehow it got messed up, the egg white was like all over the place,
At least I still ended up with wonderful poached egg yolks?

Not sure if I'm the best instruction giver on how to poach eggs,
But here's how I, or how you suppose to cook it:

Add some vinegar into a pot of water, bring to a boil then turn to medium low heat,
Crack the egg into a container first,
Now swirl the water and make a whirlpool in the middle,
Slowly drop the egg to the center, let it slowly cook the egg for few minutes,
Afterwards, remove the egg from water, preferably with a slotted spoon.

Time for plating,
Lay some pasta first, then top with thick and juicy pork chop,
Spoon some fresh pesto sauce over the meat,
Here's the important part,
Drop your perfectly poached egg (cough* cough* I mean egg yolk) on the pork chop,
Break it while the yolk is still warm,
Seeing the yolk gradually running down the meat onto the pasta,
What a wonderful scene.

This dish is definitely not hard to make,
I guess the only difficult step is poaching the eggs...hmm....
Plus many dishes piling up in the sink...don't we all hate the aftermath in the kitchen?

Cindy's Rating: 8

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