Porkchops, Chutney, Sweet Potato Mash

Sometimes rather than decide what I want to eat, and then go get the ingredients from the grocery store, I like to be inspired by what I find there. This can sometimes have great results, and other times can result in wandering the grocery store aimlessly for an hour, getting hungry, and just buying something from the hot foods section. Fortunately, Veronica has no patience for aimless wandering, so our trip to Whole Foods was fruitful and inspired (I use the word fruitful intentionally, as you will see later).

Veronica (impersonating Kevin): "I'm Kevin. I don't know if I want x or y. I'm going to put x in the cart. But wait what about y? Oooh look at j and k! Wait let me go over to..."

I don't know what she's talking about. That's not what I sound like at all. Save it for your next guest post.

Anyway, I went straight to the proteins and looked around until I found some pork chops. They were a bit thinner than I preferred, but they looked pretty good, and I had some mangoes back home that would pair well with pork. Pork with fruit is a pretty classic combination, but Veronica doesn't like sweet and savory things together, so I was determined to convert her.

I went to go ponder a side. I suggested fingerling potatoes, but Veronica insisted that we get sweet potatoes for a sweet potato mash.

Pork Chop

Ingredients

• pork chops
• soy sauce
• apple cider vinegar
• salt
• black pepper
• cumin
• cayenne pepper
• oil

Directions

This is probably not a particularly helpful picture.

1. Heat a pan on high heat with some oil. Preheat an oven to 400 degrees.
2. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and let it sit for a while. I didn't put any amounts on the ingredients because it kind of depends on how many pork chops you got in your package at the store. Also I didn't really measure anything, so I really couldn't tell you anyway.
3. Add the pork chops to the hot pan and brown for about 1 minute on each side.
4. Finish in the oven to your desired doneness. The FDA no longer suggests that you cook pork to death, so if you like your pork a bit pink, go for it! You just need to get up to 145 degrees.

Mango Chutney

This was highly improvised, and I'm not sure that I'm allowed to call it mango chutney, but it kind of tasted like chutney. Actually, Veronica said that it might be the best chutney she's ever had. I'm pretty sure it's just because I loaded it with ginger and she's obsessed with ginger, but still.

Ingredients

• 1 mango
• 1/2 cup finely chopped fresh pineapple
• 2 Tbsp finely chopped or grated ginger root
• 1 green pepper
• 3 cloves finely chopped garlic
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1 tsp curry powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• (most recipes call for onion but I didn't have any - probably would help)

Directions

It's easy!

1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan over high heat.
2. Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-low heat.
3. Simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Sweet Potato Mash

Veronica mostly made this. I tried to cook the sweet potatoes in the oven, but it was taking way too long. I would recommend boiling them. (Veronica: "I told you so.")

After that combine with milk, butter, salt, pepper, curry powder (it was a curry type of day), and Greek yogurt (for a healthier creaminess), and mash it all together with a potato masher.

It tasted better than it looks.