Grilled Pork Chops with Mango & Nectarine

I’m usually not a recipe maker upper, I'm usually a recipe adapter. But I’ve been bored with my standard pork chop (garlic, fish sauce, Worcestire, cayenne, pepper) with rice. And my mom left a cut mango out. And it didn’t feel like 100 degrees outside. After digging around my produce drawer, pantry, fruit basket, and stash of recipes, here’s what I came up with…

Ingredients

Meat

2 Pork Chops

2 TB Red Wine Vinegar

2 TB Orange Juice

Cayenne Pepper

Garlic Powder

Salt & Pepper

Fruit

1 Mango

1 Nectarine (or peach)

¼ Shallot (or red onion)

2 tsp Red Wine Vinegar

2 tsp Orange Juice

½ Lime

4 Basil leaves

Olive Oil

Salt & Pepper

1. Season pork chops with garlic powder, cayenne pepper, S&P.
2. Mix 2TB red wine vinegar with 2TB orange juice in baking dish. {I accidentally bought pomegranate red wine vinegar.}
3. Place pork chops in baking dish and marinate.  Flip and marinate some more. {I came up with this recipe that very second and only had about 10 minutes while the grill warmed.}
4. Grill pork chops (~8 minutes per side for our ¾ inch thick bone in chops). 
5. Cut one nectarine into thick wedges. Lightly coat with olive oil. Grill for a few minutes on each side.
6. Cut one mango into thick chunks. Dice ¼ shallot. After nectarine is lightly grilled, slice into thick chunks. I only removed the skin if it was falling off. Place into bowl.
7. Mix 2 tsp red wine vinegar and 2 tsp orange juice. Pour over fruit.
8. Slice up basil leaves. Add to fruit.
9. Squeeze juice of ½ a lime onto fruit. Add S&P, mix!
10. Add fruit on top of chops, omm omm omm!

Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. This dinner made up for the night before where I hurriedly abandoned my crying baby and hungry husband to make it to the French dinner party J

The charred flavor from the grill was way more satisfying than oil from a skillet. And the red wine vinegar/OJ was so much more interesting than my standard fish sauce preparation. The fruit, basil and light dressing were so refreshing (a jalapeno would’ve been good for some kick).  I always have a zucchini on hand in the summer. Grilled with some olive oil, pepper and sea salt, it can accompany just about any dinner. The rice pilaf was leftover from the night before. Not bad for winging it! We haven’t grilled enough this year...I’m not ready to let summer go! L

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