Ines' pan fried pork chops

Ingredients:

Pork chops

Garlic

Salt

White pepper

Maggi soy sauce

Cornstarch

Onions, thickly sliced

Directions:

This is my cousin Ines' recipe, which she served on the week-end. It was so yummy! She couldn't provide me the precise measurements as she does everything by feel. I haven't attempted to make this dish yet, but wanted to write down the ingredients so that I don't forget it. When I do make this, I will update the quantity in the ingredient list. 

Take the pork chops and rinse with water. She says this makes the chops moist. Next cut a garlic in half and rub onto both sides of the pork chop. It reminds me of topinky I had in the Czech Republic. It's a dish where you rub garlic on toast and then top it with thick bacon slices. If you do not have fresh garlic, you can use garlic salt. Next sprinkle white pepper all over followed by the soy sauce. Let sit for half an hour. Finally coat the chop with cornstarch as this will help retain the moisture when frying. Since I like salty foods, I would opt to sprinkle with salt if I was using fresh garlic instead of garlic salt.

Heat oil in frying pan on medium to high heat. Fry the pork chops as you normally would. Remove pork chops from the pan and toss in sliced onions. Add a tiny bit of water, cover with a lid and cook until the onions start turning translucent. Don't let them turn brown. Serve with rice or some other starchy side dish like mash potatoes.

I finally had the time to make this dish and I have some observations. I found that the garlic wasn't strong enough for my tastes. I suspect this was due to having rinsed the pork chops and not patting it dry before rubbing the fresh garlic on it. The addition of garlic powder should make it more flavourful. I found it difficult to sprinkle the corn starch evenly on the meat. I may elect to mix the corn starch in with the Maggi soy sauce along with white pepper and allow the chops to marinate for several hours, but I thought the Maggi soy sauce overpowered all the other ingredients so marinating may not work out. The corn starch is a thickener and there needs to be enough liquid to make it a consistent paste. Alternatively I could put the corn starch in a salt dispenser. This would help better distribute it over the surface of the pork chop. To be honest I don't know if the corn starch kept the pork moist. I'll definitely keep experimenting with this recipe. Having made this recipe I understand why Ines wasn't able to give me precise quantities. It is all by feel and personal taste.