Roast Pork Chops and Garlic with Cooking Mama

So, Cooking Mama is home today from work and has decided that she just wants to watch me... try (i.e. fail) making Pork Chops from the same cookbook: Creative Chinese Oven Cooking by Hseuh-Hsia Chen.

My mom is Cooking Mama. I swear I saw fire in her eyes. T.T

I came back home after a series of errands and appointments around 4pm and she hands me 3 raw pork chops that she has already beat with the blunt end of the butcher knife to tenderize the meat.

"Go follow the recipe and marinade while I watch"

Okay...

Ingredients for the marinade for 2 pork chops:

1 Tbsp Minced garlic (I used much more than this even for 3 pork chops~ nearly 2.5 Tbsp)

1 Tbsp Cooking wine

3 Tbsp Dark soy sauce

2 tsp Sugar

1/4 tsp Pepper

The first thing is to chop up the garlic...

"NO! There is a much easier way to break open the cloves!!!!"

Mom takes a clove and then hits it with the side of the butcher knife - clove breaks free of the casing

"Like that! See how easy it is? Saves time too"

Okay...

"You try"

Okay... *takes a clove and hits with butcher knife* - clove does not break open

*tries again* - clove sits perfectly on the cutting board

*fire in mom's eyes*

"!!! LET ME DO IT" *takes butcher knife and slams it down on the rest of the cloves* "THERE! SO EASY! Finish chopping! NOO Not like that.. like this!"

Mom sits back at the kitchen table with her feet propped up on the next chair and very leisurely eats her green apple while watching some TVB show. She periodically peers over to make sure I'm doing the proper and right thing.

I return to the chopping..

Okay so here's what happens now:

1. Mix all the marinade ingredients together in one bowl. I added slightly more than what the recipe calls for (see above) because I have 3 pork chops instead of 2.

2. Then spread all over the pork chops on both sides with your hands.

3. Cover the pork chops with plastic wrap and let it marinate for about an hour or more (overnight even). I let mine marinate for about 1 hour.

Meanwhile, heat the oven to 400 degrees.

After pork chops are done marinating:

4. Wipe the rack (where you're gonna put the pork chops on) with olive oil and arrange the marinated pork chops on top.

*I put a baking tray underneath so the extra juice would drip into that instead of the oven.

5. Put the pork chops in the oven for 15-25 minutes. Check after 15 minutes by cutting the pork chops near the bone to see if it is done or not. The book calls for 15 minutes but my pork chops are thicker so I put it in for 25 minutes.

6. Then arrange the pork chops on a plate and squeeze some fresh lemon juice on top and voila!! Pork chops for dinner!

The extra marinade that was left after soaking the raw pork chops in them was poured into a sauce pan with a little bit of water added to it. Then it was boiled and poured into a bowl for extra sauce for the pork chops :)

Pretty simple and straight forward recipe. The hardest part for me was the garlic x.x

After an hour of marinating, it is still good, but I guess if you want the best flavor, it's better to marinate for a few hours.