Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Good Eats? You Bet!

And all the gooder for having been made by someone other than me. (Don't get me wrong! I do love my own cooking but I rarely have time for it).

"So, you're gonna tell the whole Internet I cooked and it came out okay, right?" Tam asked after dinner'd been tucked into, devoured and the dishes cleared away.

I was neck-deep in Wired, reading about Star City and the exploits of Lord British therein and learning all about the Pencil of the Month Club so, genius that I am, I said, "Nope."
"Hey!"
"Er -- yeah?"

Tam was convinced dinner would be a disaster; she was three-quarters done when I got home and seeing the prep and stress level[1], I nipped out to the market for some hand soap and lunchworthy this and that; but what I'd seen looked intriguing: sizzlin' hunks of meat, well-drained black beans, a can of crushed pineapple and a fresh sweet red pepper.

'Pon my return, Jamaican Jerk pork chops[2] and a very fine black-bean salsa had materialized, sizzlin' hot under a heavenly aroma, not to mention a dusting of chopped green onion.

Tam was every bit the picture of pride and trepidation. She had every reason for the former but none at all for the latter: the result tasted as good as it had promised! I am not fond of sweet flavors with meat; the usual Midwestern brown-sugar glazed ham, for instance, does not tempt me.

...But count me a believer in this combination! The marinade, pineapple, sweet pepper, a bit of cider vinegar and so (secret recipe) on had blended into a delight, with just enough heat and the exact amount of sweetness to compliment the chops. Tam K can, in fact, cook. Despite her claims otherwise. (Ha! It's a fine corner you've got yourself in now, roomie!)

It was worth having to load the dishwasher. It was even worth settin' down the magazine to come in and brag about -- which I would have done anyway.

Now then, about that Pencil of the Month....
___________________________
1. I'd make some hi-larious comment about a first-rate target shooter and all-round tactical gal who gets rattled over cookery...if I wasn't a whole lot that way myself, only minus the tac part.
2. Assuming a 4" cube of tender pork counts as a "chop!"

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fabulous!

Turk Turon said...

Yum!

Sounds dee-lish!

Anonymous said...

Cooking.
Lawn mowing.
Gardening..

Tam's been taken by the Stepford wives!

LabRat said...

Caribbean cooking contains some masterful renditions of the proper balances of sweet and spicy. Pork has a bit of natural sweetness of its own that makes all that work particularly well with it, when not done in a (ahaha, I slay me) ham-fisted manner. Our very favorite pork roast recipe is Cuban, and has a lot of the same elements that were evidently in your jerk pork...