Pork Chops with Goat Cheese Crumbles
Sometimes when I cook I have a plan. Not all the time, but most of the time the results come out just the way I wanted. For these pork chops I had a plan, and the results were good, but not quite what was predicted. I planned on having delicately browned rounds of goat cheese, floating atop the baked pork chops. There ended up being no rounds and no floating. In the future I will again attempt making the floaty goat cheese rounds, but for the time being, here is the yummy, crunchy, unexpected results of the first attempt.
Pork Chops with Goat Cheese Crumbles
4 – 5 pork chops, medium thick cut, bone-in
1 cup salsa verde
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp garlic powder
Salt and pepper
4 ounces goat cheese
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Season pork chops generously on both sides with cumin, garlic powder, salt and pepper. Place chops on large baking sheet. Spread salsa verde over the top of each chop. Place in oven and bake until pork is fully cooked, about 40 minutes. While the chops are cooking prepare the cheese. Heat a dry a frying pan over medium heat. Place thin slices of goat cheese in the pan, leaving about one inch of space around each slice (you should be able to get 8 – 10 slices out of a 4 ounce roll of cheese). After about one minute the goat cheese will soften and the bottom will be brown. Gently scrape off the soft, white cheese to reveal the bottom layer that is browning on the pan cooking surface. Place the white cheese in an empty place in the pan. Gently scrape the browned cheese off the pan and place the cheese ‘crisp’ on a piece of parchment paper or cutting board. Continue the scraping process until all the cheese has been crisped. Let the crisps cool for about five minutes, then roughly chop the crisps into bite sized pieces. Sprinkle the chops with cheese crumbles and serve.
Note: although all the crumbles were yummy, the lighter brown crumbles retained more of the goat cheese flavor.