Hawaiian Treats

After a trip to the store, my boyfriend discovered that, instead of pineapples in juice, he had accidentally grabbed pineapples in heavy syrup. So I decided to cook a little something with it. After thawing the chops, I realized that we didn't have any soy sauce left in the bottle that was still in the fridge. (I'm not sure why it was back in the fridge, maybe it was going to spontaneously re-fill itself.) I did find some soy sauce packets in a drawer from takeout Chinese, which worked nicely.

3-4 porkchops
a small splash of olive oil (or 1 Tbs)
Mix 1:

• 2-3 packets of soy sauce (or 2 Tbs)
• 1 splash of vinegar (1 Tbs)
• a pint glass mostly full of chicken stock (I used a bullion cube) (or a 14.5 oz can of broth)

Mix 2:

• 2 Tbs of cornstarch
• about half the can of pineapple chunks and syrup (or 1/2 cup juice and 2 Tbs sugar [or sweetener equivalent])

You'll need a medium-sized pan with a lid

• Brown the porkchops in the olive oil (~5 min/side). Remove them to a plate.
• Put parts of Mix 1 into the pan, heat to a boil.
• Return the chops, turn down the heat, cover and simmer until cooked (20-25 minutes, depending on the thickness)
• While that's cooking, stir up Mix 2, without the chunks, in a glass or bowl. (From bartending, I have lots of pint glasses, and find that they are just perfect for dissolving cornstarch in, because you can see if there's any stuck to the bottom.)
• Remove the cooked chops to a plate, add the stirred Mix 2 and the pineapple chunks to the pan.
• Heat and stir the sauce until it thickens.
• That's it! It goes well over rice, and you could add other veggies, like broccoli

I found this was tasty for dinner and reheated very well at lunch the next day.