9/14/09 - Cider Brined Pork and Orzo Salad

The plan for tonight's dinner was getting some fish at the farmer's market however for the second week in a row the fisherman was not there! I am hoping that the season isn't over already and that he is going to return since I love getting fresh LBI fish. For my contingency plan I decided to use up the pork that added other half of the cider brine from the chicken. While I did a lot of veggie shopping at the market everything was sort of planned for the weekend so I didn't want to mess up my recipes. So into the pantry I went for a side that was easy to doll up with the few things I had on hand.


Since I sort of had the meat started before I had my sides together it came down to something that would cook fast! With brown rice taking 45 min or more I knew that was out so I decided on this tri-color Orzo pasta with its lightening fast 10 min boil. I seasoned the Orzo with some lemon, cilantro and scallions to give it a frehser taste and dressed the grilled pork with some ginger carrot vinegrette. In order to get dinner on the table I seared the pork on all 4 sides for 5 min each then sliced it into thick chunks and cooked it to medium (about 5 min each side) which took about 30 min off of my cooking time.