These were made on a dark and stormy night! And, yes, inspired by delicious
Dark & Stormy cocktails, except these chops were marinated with bourbon instead of Gosling's rum. Get two thick-cut boneless pork chops and cover in 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger, plus a pinch of red pepper flakes and 1 minced clove of garlic...
This isn't the
first time we've seen this ginger beer around here, is it? Looks familiar to me!
Cover the pork chops with about 1/2 cup of the ginger beer, a couple good shots of dark spiced rum or bourbon, plus the juice from half a lime and 1 tablespoon soy sauce. Let marinate for at least 1 hour, refrigerated, but a few hours would be even better.
Meanwhile, mince you up 2 shallots.
Remove your chops and reserve the marinade. Heat a tablespoon olive oil over medium high heat and add in the pork chops, getting each side browned well.
It will probably take about 3-4 minutes per side.
Remove those lovely beasts to a plate once they're nice and browned. They don't need to be cooked all the way through, so don't worry about that yet.
Enter the shallots! Dump them in your pan over medium heat and sauté briefly (maybe 3 minutes) until soft. You shouldn't need to add any more fat, but if it seems dry you can kick in a little butter or olive oil.
Lovely. Once the shallots are soft, turn up the heat to medium high and add in the marinade. The ginger beer will sizzle and foam up in an entertaining manner. Let it cook until somewhat reduced, maybe 2 minutes.
Now you must pick whichever side of your pork chops is the prettiest. Set it best side up in the reduced marinade-shallots mixture and turn the heat to medium-low so they can cook all the way through. The USDA says pork should check in at an internal temperature of 160 before serving. I just use my instant read thermometer because it's hard to be sure with the thick cut kind of chops whether they are done through.
Yes. Looks good. You can serve with a wedge of lime for the real cocktail experience.
One major difference for this year's St. Patrick's Day: Rick moved out of town so I had to make the Irish soda bread myself. But besides that, all the regulars showed up...4 heads of cabbage.
Many potatoes...
And assorted roots. Not the stars of the show but they build good flavor.
Here's where those 12 pounds of beef went! Borrowed the world's largest pot from the Blivmore family so I could cook it all together at once. Covered the corned beef in water and let simmer for about 3 1/2 hours, until tender. Then added in the vegetables to cook for the last hour or so.
The soda bread wasn't too hard to make, thanks to Rick's careful instruction. I'll add the recipe here later as an update if he says I can share it.
And the stand mixer helps too...just mix it and knead it all in one place, which helps when you're making 4 separate batches. I had no idea how often I would be using this! An excellent gift from my parents who know better about these things. 
It basically looks like a brain.
You just plop it right on the baking sheet in its free-form brain shape.
And it is beautiful. I made two loaves with raisins and two without.
