So, this is the last meal from this week's visit to the Studio City farmer's market. I had left five sweet limes from Cliff McFarlin, Brussels sprouts from the Rancho Cortez farm, and one tomato from the Tomato Man.
In my humble opinion, Brussels sprouts demand pork fat. My local supermarket butcher carries Kurobota pork chops, and I thought that would be just the ticket for this meal. Compared to the usual supermarket pork chops, it's a bit of an extravagance. But there is nothing normal about Kurobota pork chops. Spend the money; you will not regret it. Even if you are a fat-phobic fanatic, please, do NOT cut the fat of these. It is comparable to cutting the fat out of prosciutto. (If you do the latter, you and I do not belong on the same blog!)
I obtained about one cup of juice from the sweet limes. With some salt (3 tsp), brown sugar (1 tsp), pepper, sage, rosemary, thyme, juniper berries, and a cup of water, I turned it into a super-flavored brine for the pork chops. After a two-hour brine, I let the pork chops dry out on a rack for about an hour. (I used Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie book as a guide for the salt/sugar proportions in the brine, but reduced the amount of sugar to offset the sweetness of the sweet lime juice.)
I fried the chops to medium doneness in the fat of a few slices of bacon. While the chops were resting, the blanched and halved sprouts went into the bacon fat together with a diced shallot. I like the sprouts when they are nicely browned on the cut side. When plating, I topped the sprouts with the rendered bacon and a diced tomato from the Tomato Man. Finally, I finished this with a dab of Maille mustard.
OK, this is not diet food. But, wouldn't you want some of this now?
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