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....
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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:

  1. Cooking.
    Lawn mowing.
    Gardening..

    Tam's been taken by the Stepford wives!

    ReplyDelete
  2. 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...

    ReplyDelete

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