Parmesan-Crusted Pork Chops and Cucumber Salad

Could this be any easier?  I don’t know, but if it can, it might not get me out of doing the dishes anymore… heh. 

Unfortunately, my original side dish invention was a spectacular mess.  I’d taken day-old macaroni & cheese (the boxed stuff, because I didn’t have on hand everything necessary to make Alton Brown’s stove top macaroni&cheese), cut it into bite size squares, lightly breaded them, and then dropped them in oil that came up about 1/3 of the way on each bite size piece.  But alas, t’was not to be, which became clear after about 5 minutes of gentle frying- perhaps they were too gooey, or not breaded enough, I’m not sure; I tried to flip them, and one by one they fell apart until it appeared I was frying a big cheesy macaroni pie.  Sounds good? but wouldn’t work as it turned into a terrible oily mess. 

In any case, I took some pork chops, dipped them in milk, then Italian-seasoned bread crumbs with Parmesan cheese added, back into the milk, then back to the Parmesan bread crumb mix.  Threw them into some olive oil in a hot pan and let them crisp up nicely.  (The funny thing is, I wound up bringing a plate to my brother at work, so he photographed the food- it runs in the family, I s’pose- and posted it on his food blog, and people commented about how burnt the porkchops were.  I have to emphasize that they weren’t burnt, cheese blackens (and burns) easily but trust me, if they were burnt, no one would have eaten more than two bites because burnt food tastes absolutely disgusting.) 

Since my cheesy macaroni bites concept didn’t come through, I allowed my boyfriend to choose the replacement side dish: mashed potatoes, boxed macaroni & cheese, whatever.  I think he chose what he thought was easiest (boxed macaroni & cheese) because he kept bugging me while I was cooking, saying he was starving. 

But on to the real star of the meal, in my opinion (which my boyfriend did not eat- instead he ate two pork chops, a lot of macaroni & cheese, and called it a night)- the cucumber salad. 

• two regular cucumbers, peeled and sliced
• salt
• fresh ground black pepper
• dried dill
• sour cream
• (fat free) mayo
• secret weapon: chili pepper flakes!!!

Put the cucumbers in a colander over a bowl or in the sink and sprinkle liberally with salt.  Shake to get salt everywhere and let sit for a bit while the water is zapped out of the cucumbers.  Press down to get rid of a lot of water as desired.

Mix with fresh ground black pepper, dried dill, sour cream and mayo to coat (I used a little too much, will use less mayo/sour cream next time).  Add a pinch (to taste- if you like it spicier, add more, by all means!) of red pepper flakes, mix thoroughly and let infuse for a few hours (I chilled mine overnight). 

The thing about this dish is that cucumbers imply cool, refreshing taste.  But when you take a bite of this particular salad, you taste that, but then you also taste in the very background, at the very end, a light heat, a slight tingle on your tongue.  It’s so subtle and yet striking in its contrast to the minty freshness of the cucumbers.  It just works, in my opinion (and apparently my brother’s). 

Happy eating from the Feisty Foodie!  Have an excellent weekend!!!