Orange Pork

Early on, I had this brilliant thought that I would write not just about my knitting and sewing projects but also my baking projects. Well, this isn't quite baking but it was a huge success, so I feel it must be written about.

On Mother's Day, a friend and I met up to go to the Shepherd's Harvest Festival, which was guaranteed to bore our husbands. The promise of llamas convinced them to stay through that and then they were gone to do "manly" things and drive the Telsa around. The original plan was to have our friends stay over for dinner so I took out some pork chops to grill. My husband is a genius when it comes to cooking meat with fire. Sadly, being responsible adults prevailed and our friends headed home.

So the meat sat for a few days. Come to this past Thursday (4 days past thaw out) and we needed to cook the meat. I ended up with a horrible headache but was determined to marinate the meat for at least 12 hours and then cook it on the wood grill/smoker outside. I mixed things together and stuck it all into the fridge to sit for 12 hours.

The next morning, I successfully made a fire though it took longer than normal. The main goal was to smoke the meat. Once the fire was convincingly not going to die, I seared both sides of the and then removed them from the fire, sticking them over to the side. This I have learned from my husband and there's some sort of chemistry change in the meat by doing this, but I'm honestly not entirely sure how to explain it. I know that I didn't hover over the meat and managed to give it just enough time to be done but not overcooked. The husband even gave me an A+ for my work. It was then that he realized that I actually am paying attention to what he is doing when I stand outside chatting with him as he grills.

So that I can recreate this later, this is roughly the recipe of what I did.

In a large bowl, add the following to pork chops:
-fresh grated orange rind from 3 Cara Cara oranges
-fresh squeezed juice from 3 Cara Cara oranges (same ones the rind came from)
-pulp from one orange
-Light coating of vegetable oil
-Soy sauce, roughly equal to the same amount of orange juice

Place in fridge and let marinate for at least 12 hours

Grill and smoke on wood fire. Gently sear each side and then remove from flame. Let smoke until pork is firm.

Orange Pork Chops, fresh off the grill.