As the familiar desperate cry of “This is why I let you cook, I always stuff it up!” sounded from the kitchen, I decided it was time I taught my other half to cook.
Oh yes, he can boil water and cook some things – as long as there’s no more than 3 steps written on the jar. However, real cooking, with a fresh ingredients and an actual recipe is a little out of his league.
The problem I faced was showing him a quick and tasty dish that didn’t overwhelm him with instructions. Our next meal would be glazed meat and two veg – hopefully a recipe simple enough without requiring much fuss.
Maple and ginger pork cutlets
Ingredients
RSPCA Approved pork cutlets
A few glugs of maple syrup
Thumb-sized piece of root ginger
Peel and grate the ginger. While you’ll use most of the ginger in the marinade, rub a small amount of the ginger into each cutlet with some salt and pepper now. Mix the remaining ginger into the maple syrup. In a pan over medium heat, melt a tablespoon of butter then sear the pork cutlets on both sides. Sear the cutlets for a minute each side. Turn the cutlets once a minute, drizzling over some of the ginger-maple syrup at each turn, for a total of 3-4 minutes or until golden brown. Serve on top of mashed sweet potatoes with a side of green beans, pouring a little bit of the glaze over the top.
I like to either mix the excess glaze into the mashed sweet potato, or just leave the glaze in the pan to solidify. (If you let the glaze harden, try smashing the burnt toffee-like substance and sprinkle the pieces over a bowl of vanilla icecream for dessert – yum!)
If you have a few hours, marinate the cutlets in the ginger-infused maple syrup, and letting it sit overnight is even better.
