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Get Your Mojo On With This Recipe

Photo by LYNN KESSEL

Help your pork chops turn on the mojo with this tangy marinade made of sour oranges, garlic, olive oil and cumin. It's also great with fish, duck or chicken.

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By LYNN KESSEL

Tribune Correspondent

Published: January 28, 2009

Updated: 01/28/2009 12:34 pm

A little bit of this and a little bit of that might be the best way to describe this week's column.

The Ruskin Chamber of Commerce had its annual awards banquet Jan. 16 at the Southshore Falls clubhouse. Dinner was sponsored by The Resort & Club at Little Harbor, and the chicken with chardonnay sauce was scrumptious. My only gripe was I couldn't get enough sauce with the slotted spoon it was served with.

I was asked to put together a dessert table. Fully aware that I've never done this sort of thing before - at least not for 200 to 300 people - I took on the challenge.

There are so many things you need to know and think about before doing a project like this. My mind raced.

What ingredients would I need? What size portions should I serve? How would I be able to transport everything? What extra equipment would I need - platters, tiers, tablecloths and the like.

Having to answer all these questions sure left me with a deeper respect for the catering industry! Everything went smoothly, though, and every last crumb of the almost 500 bite-size desserts I made quickly vanished.

The day before the banquet, I stopped by Hydro Harvest Farms to see how the strawberries were coming along. I hoped to embellish my dessert table with a handful or two of the juicy beauties.

Basket and clippers in hand, I walked with owner John Lawson through row after row of the hydroponically grown berries, looking for the best of his crop. For some reason, we began talking about herbs. I told him how a bunch of rosemary and oregano I picked three weeks ago stayed fresh in my fridge by wrapping them first in a slightly damp paper towel, and then sticking the bundle inside a plastic bag.

John suggested a second method. He said he finely chops herbs that he's not going to use right away and puts them in ice cube trays filled with water. Once frozen, the cubes are easily dropped into soups and sauces for added flavor.

I thought this was a neat idea. In fact, when I got home, I chopped up some oregano and followed his instructions. Days later, I plucked a few cubes from the freezer and added them to my spaghetti sauce. Worked like a charm!

On another note, Charlie Jordan of Riverview wrote me an e-mail recently letting me know he prepared one of my column recipes - Gorgonzola and White Wine Cheese Balls. He said it was a huge hit with all of his partygoers and then thanked me for publishing "a recipe even a guy can follow." He closed with a request that I keep the average guy in mind in some of my future columns. Will do.

Charlie, I think you're going to like this week's recipe for Sour Orange Marinated Pork Chops. It's a very quick marinade that is also used as a sauce, once the pork chops are done. Packed with pungent flavor, the mixture of juice from the sour orange and garlic delivers the essence of mojo. If you don't happen to have access to sour oranges, try My Mother's Garden online market, or you can substitute the juice of one orange and two limes. If you're not into pork, try this marinade with fish, duck or chicken.

SOUR ORANGE MARINATED PORK CHOPS

4 thick-cut pork chops, bone-in

5 cloves garlic

5 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of two sour oranges

1/8 teaspoon cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

In a small food processor or blender, puree the garlic, olive oil, orange juice, cumin and a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside 1/4 cup of the marinade for spreading over the chops after they're cooked. In a non-reactive bowl, add the pork chops and cover with the remaining marinade. Cover with plastic and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes - even better, for two hours. Turn occasionally.

Heat a cast-iron skillet or grill pan filmed with oil until very hot. Cook the chops to desired doneness, about 5 to 7 minutes per side. Spoon reserved sauce over the chops and serve.

Lynn Kessel can be reached at lkessel@mac.com or P.O. Box 913, Ruskin FL 33575-0913. For more of her recipes, visit southshore .tbo.com and enter the search words: Lynn Kessel. Readers are encouraged to send in their favorite recipes, comments and suggest

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