Continental Cowboy

Braciola alla Griglia con una Glassa di Miele & Fagioli Mediterranea

Grilled Pork with a Honey Glaze & Mediterranean Bean Salad

I am pretty sure that Buffalo Bill wouldn't be expecting a dish like this if you told him you had fixed pork and beans for supper... but this is what I fixed for mine this evening!  I didn't get home from work until late, but still got this whipped together in next to no time and managed, with the last of the evenings sunshine, to get a couple of good shots of it too.

 
The pork was a lean, boneless chop, that I cut into 3 smaller pieces. I marinated it in apple juice, olive oil, crushed garlic, Tabasco and a little salt for 5-10 minutes and the dropped it onto a very hot grill pan and ran for cover!

Pork loves to dry-up on you, so a quick blast at a high heat is a good way to go. I know people always talk about pork needing to be well-cooked... but seriously, people have been saying that since the days that there were no refrigerators. It is like when people talk about red wine being best served at room temperature. Like the temperature of our rooms nowadays, is anything like the temperatures that people were used to back in the day that those words of wisdom were first used...

I like to leave a little juice in my meat, whatever the cut- but of course it is all a matter of personal preference. After 2-3 minutes on either side, I added a good drizzle of honey and a little of the marinade and let the pork glaze and turn golden brown... 5 minutes of cooking in all is more than enough!

I would love to tell you that the beans were fresh from a local farmers market... but they at least came from a freshly opened can! Just like everybody else, I am often short on time and  do make use of some canned goods occasionally- beans, chick peas, tomatoes... stuff that is simply common sense. To go to the trouble of soaking beans or chick peas for a single serving really doesn't make sense. 

So the bean salad is a mix of shallots, sun-dried tomatoes, black olives, capers, lemon zest, and watercress. The dressing is lemon juice, olive oil, sea salt and honey, with a little crushed garlic and a little Tabasco sauce... simple and yummy. Takes less that 5 minutes to make... what's not to love about that? It will taste better if it can soak up those good flavors for an hour or so. But if you are in as much of a hurry as I was this evening, pour yourself a glass of sparkling, chilled cider to go with it and enjoy immediately!