Fried Pork Chops with Grilled Vegetables, for Two!

By Tom Cleary
Food Columnist, ‘11

This is another easy dish to make although it requires a little more preparation work than some of the other dishes.  I like it because if you plate it the right way it looks a lot fancier than it really is, and food that looks good always tastes better.  This dish is ideal for making dinner for two because its something that you can easily do a few steps earlier in the day, such as cooking the vegetables and coating the pork chops, and then do the last minute frying and plating to show off your cooking skills.  Of course this is a flexible dish so you can add whatever vegetables you want to the grilled vegetables part and the pork chops can really be made with or without the bread crumb-egg coating and just fried with the herbs and spices to flavor.

Ingredients
•    2 pork chops
•    1 cup of bread crumbs
•    1 egg
•    2 peppers, preferably two different             color peppers
•    1 red onion
•    1 potato
•    olive oil
•    butter
•    salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary,             oregano, etc.

Preparation for Grilled Vegetables
-Preheat your oven to about 350o F
-Cut onion and peppers into decent sized strips and cut the potato into thin round slices then place them all on a oiled up baking pan.
- pour a little olive oil over the vegetables and generously sprinkle them with spices and herbs
- place pan into oven for about 15 min or until the vegetables look semi shriveled and tasty .
Preparation for Pork Chops
-Mix the bread crumbs with some spices and herbs in a shallow plate
-Crack and beat an egg in another plate
-Heat up a frying pan to medium heat
-Take a pork chop and dip both sides into first the egg and then into the bread crumbs, Rinse and repeat for the second pork chop.
-Put a pat of butter onto the frying pan until it is melted and spread evenly
-Place the pork chops onto the pan and let each side cook for about 3-4 min or until the juices of the meat are clear.  Be careful to not overcook the pork chop otherwise you’ll end up with a piece of shoe leather.  Here the cooking times change drastically depending on how thick the cut of meat is, the thicker the meat the longer it is going to have to cook.
Finally take the cooked vegtalbles put them in a little circle on the plate and put the pork right in the middle of it.  Serve with rice or pasta and maybe a glass of red wine if you’re up for it.