By Thanksgiving. Pete came to Lourdes's house. He arrived with a bottle of wine and the expression of a man entering a world he'd heard about but never experienced — the Filipino Thanksgiving, the table that defies Western holiday norms, the feast that includes turkey and lechon kawali and pancit and lumpia and sinigang and the fruit salad with condensed milk and the sheer, unapologetic excess of a household where the response to any occasion is: cook more.
Lourdes evaluated Pete in three seconds flat. "You're too thin. Sit. Eat." Pete sat. Pete ate. Pete ate three servings of everything and Lourdes watched him with the satisfied expression of a woman who has identified a problem (thinness) and is applying the solution (food) with clinical precision. By the end of dinner, Lourdes had adopted Pete. Not formally — there was no ceremony — but Pete was now inside the radius of Lourdes's feeding jurisdiction, which means he will receive Tupperware and phone calls and the particular Santos woman attention that is both gift and burden.
Angela and James were there. Angela looked tired — the tiredness of trying, of hoping, of the monthly cycle of possibility and disappointment that conceiving can become when it doesn't happen on schedule. I didn't ask. I brought her a plate with extra lechon kawali — the Santos response to tiredness, the pork-based intervention, the crispy comfort food that solves nothing and holds everything.
Joseph called from Kodiak. He and Suki had Thanksgiving on the boat — halibut and crab, the Kodiak version. Lourdes grilled Suki through the speakerphone about her cooking skills. Suki answered with the calm of a marine biologist who has handled more unpredictable organisms than Lourdes Santos. Lourdes was impressed. She said, "This girl has sense." In the Lourdes rating system, "has sense" is the bronze medal. "Has manners" is silver. "Can cook" is gold. Suki has earned bronze. The other medals will require an in-person visit.
Lechon kawali was the first thing gone off the table that night — it always is. I brought Angela that extra plate and watched the crunch of it do what words couldn’t, and I thought: I need to be able to make something like this on a Tuesday, without a deep fryer, without the whole production. These tangy pork chops have become my weeknight answer to that craving — the same porky, savory satisfaction that Lourdes’s table runs on, but simple enough to make when it’s just you and a pan and the need to feel a little less far from home.
Tangy Pork Chops
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 20 minutes | Total Time: 30 minutes | Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 4 bone-in pork chops (about 3/4 inch thick)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley, for serving
Instructions
- Season the chops. Pat pork chops dry with paper towels. Season both sides evenly with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
- Sear the pork. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork chops and sear 4—5 minutes per side until golden brown and cooked through (internal temperature 145°F). Transfer to a plate and tent loosely with foil.
- Build the sauce. Reduce heat to medium. In the same skillet, add minced garlic and cook 30 seconds until fragrant. Stir in apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and red pepper flakes. Scrape up any browned bits from the pan.
- Reduce and glaze. Simmer the sauce 3—4 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it thickens slightly and coats the back of a spoon.
- Finish and serve. Return pork chops to the skillet and spoon the sauce over them. Cook 1—2 minutes more to warm through and glaze. Garnish with fresh parsley and serve immediately.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 32g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 8g | Fiber: 0g | Sodium: 620mg