How a Pepper Stole the Spotlight from Pork

Good Morning!

(It's almost 11 pm.)

I had a friend over for dinner last night, and I cooked up something neat, so I thought I'd share.  I did roasted pork chops with sweet potato, and stuffed red peppers with white and green asparagus vinaigrette.

The chops were kinda small (but from a really great butcher), so I decided to do the peppers as a last minute thing.

They actually become the focus of the meal.  Here's the recipe:

Put the oven on at 375ish degrees C.  Bring nice fresh pork chops (I like sirloin cut, but I had centre chops last night and they worked fine) up to temp.  Rub with ground black pepper, coriander, cumin, paprika, ground white pepper, and smoked salt.  Heat a skillet over medium-high, melt some butter and chop sweet potatoes (red-skinned potatoes are awesome too!) about 1 inch x 1 inch, tossing with salt and pepper until they start to brown.  Layer in the bottom of the baking dish.

Sear the meat on both sides, add to baking dish on top of the potatoes.

Take two red peppers and cut the stem off like a jack-o-lantern (hey, this is seasonally appropriate!)

In a bowl, combine 3 or 4 chopped giant green olives, one small shallot diced, half a greenhouse tomato diced, about 2 oz crumbled feta, black pepper, half a medium-sized diced green zucchini, salt, and a pinch each dried oregano, dried thyme and dried savory.  Add grated asiago if you love cheese as much as I love cheese.  (Hint: it's a lot!)  Mix the filling, stuff it in the peppers, and then put in a baking dish with some olive oil.

Think, "Something's missing," and look around in the fridge.

See bacon.  Remove bacon from fridge.  Slice 3 or 4 pieces in half and then layer over top of stuffed peppers.  Bake in oven until bacon is crispy and pork chops are showing just a little bit of pink inside (medium-well).

The asparagus vinaigrette is easy too, just blanch trimmed white and green asparagus, toss in the pan that you seared the meat in with some butter, then add a drizzle of sherry vinegar (leeks done this way was one of my favourite things to make this summer).

Stuffing vegetables with other things was the greatest idea ever.  These things completely overtook the pork as the centrepiece of the meal.  It's okay though, I like vegetables!

Bon appetit and good night,

Melissa