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Pork steak is a less-tender cut of meat which usually demands moist slow cooking. Very thin pork steaks are sometimes tenderized by pounding them even thinner, coating with flour and then pan frying. Thicker pork steaks benefit from browning to seal in the juices and then simmering in liquid until tender. A marinade adds flavor and helps tenderize the meat if the marinade is acid based.

3 cloves garlic
Bunch scallions
1/2 inch section of fresh ginger
1 cup rice wine
1 cup orange juice
1 tbsp. grated orange peel
2 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. sesame oil
Measuring spoons and cups
Zip lock bag
2 medium onions
1 lb. fresh broccoli
Cutting board
Knife
Paper towels
Cooking pan
1 tbsp. cooking oil
1/2 cup water or chicken broth

Make the marinade. Mince the garlic, scallions and ginger. Combine with the rice wine vinegar, orange juice, orange peel, soy sauce and sesame oil. Reserve 1/2 cup and put it in the refrigerator. Place the pork steak into a zip lock bag and pour in the marinade. Place in the refrigerator for at least an hour up to overnight. If the marinade doesn’t completely cover the pork steak, turn it over at least once while it’s marinating.

Prepare the vegetables. Slice the onions thinly, no more than 1/4 inch thick. Slice the broccoli no more than 1/2 inch thick. Keep separate and covered.

Remove the pork steak from the marinade. Pat dry. Throw out the leftover marinade.

Turn on the vent fan over the stove. Heat a skillet on high. Add 1 tbsp. of cooking oil. Wait until the oil starts to haze. Pick up the pork steak with tongs and add to the hot oil. It will smoke a bit. Brown on one side. It shouldn’t take more than a minute or two. Turn it over and brown the other side.

Lower the heat to medium. Add the onions to the pan. Saute until translucent, about three or four minutes. Stir the onions as they’re cooking.

Add the pork steak back to the pan. Pour in all of the reserved marinade less 2 tbsp. and 1/2 cup of water or chicken broth. Bring to a boil then lower the heat so the liquid is barely bubbling. Cover the pan and simmer for 45 minutes.

Add the broccoli slices to the pan. Bring back to a boil then lower the heat to a simmer. Cook an additional five minutes. The broccoli will be crisp tender rather than mushy.

Serve with rice and a salad made with radishes, scallions, snap peas and cucumber slices. Mix the reserved 2 tbsp. of marinade with 2 tbsp of cooking oil and use as the dressing.

Check the pork steak for doneness by using a meat thermometer, it should read 160 F or by cutting the steak. There should be no traces of pink in the meat.

Adding dried lemon rind to salad dressings, dips and yogurt gives it an intensely lemony flavor not possible with just lemon juice. When you’re on a weight loss program, adding lemon peel ads flavor but no calories. Lemon rind is not available in most supermarkets but it’s not difficult to make. Use unblemished lemons without any mold or soft spots. Besides cooking, lemon rind is attractive in potpourris.

Cooking
Scrub the lemon with soapy water. Rinse well. Remove any stickers.

Cut the rind off the lemon with a vegetable peeler leaving the white pith behind the rind on the lemon. The strips should be as wide and long as possible. They’ll be easier to handle after they dry and won’t fall through the grates of the dehydrator when they shrink. The rinds will shrink to one-quarter of their fresh size.

Place the strips of lemon rinds on the trays of a dehydrator. They should not be overlapping or touching. Turn the dehydrator on.

Check the rinds after four hours. Put the tray that’s on the bottom and nearest the heat source on the top and put the tray that was on the top on the bottom. If the dehydrator as the heat source in the back of the dehydrator it’s not necessary to move the trays. The fan that blows the heat through the trays reach them equally.

Check the rinds again in another four hours. They should be dry when the rind is still somewhat pliable. Exactly how long depends on the heat of the dehydrator and the humidity in the air.

Grind the rinds in a coffee bean grinder you only use for spices right before use. Add the rind to recipes that call for lemon or orange juice for an extra lemon flavor.

Potpourri
Cut the lemons in half. Juice the lemons and save the juice for another use. It freezes well. Scrape out the inside pulp that’s left with a spoon and dispose of or add it to your garden compost heap.

Slice each half into four pieces. Arrange on the trays of the dehydrator without touching. The pieces will take longer to dry than the peel because it has the moist pith attached and any of the pulp you didn’t remove.

Dry until the lemon rind pieces are almost crisp. Add to dried rosemary and cinnamon sticks for a natural potpourri. Or put in muslin bags with lavender and cedar essential oil to scent closets, musty boots or even in the car.

Grind the dried rind right before using for the brightest lemon taste. If you don’t remove the pith the rind will have a bitter taste.

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