Left Flank to a Pork Chop Breaded & Broiled
(and a RED ready-to-hand)
Well, we’re still working on that weekday dinner from two blogs ago, of a pork chop breaded & broiled, flanked by broccoli all'aglio e olio, a.k.a., broccoli garlicy, and marinated carrots, to be here dubbed carrots lemony.
Now in the interests of full disclosure, I must admit that not only are carrots lemony not a dish of my people, but I have introduced them into the family over the objections of my father. Whenever anyone says how delicious the carrots are, my father may be relied upon to explain why they’re not. He thinks they don’t taste like anything, just boiled. Well, don’t you mind him, Gentle Reader, just let him talk. I suspect that he would like the boiled carrots better if instead of a litte white wine vinegar with lemon I put a lot of Balsamic vinegar on them, but that would just give them the familiar taste satisfaction of his usual vinaigrette, at the expense of suppressing the flavor of carrot.
What I like about this dish is that the restrained use of vinegar to season the carrots and the final spurt of lemon juice just before bringing them to table bring the carrot flavor unexpectedly into relief, brightened with refreshing lemoniness. People often exclaim, “They’re so refreshing!” The dressing of a boiled vegetable with olive oil and lemon juice has a special name in Italian, all’agro, which loosely translates as “sour”. Well, “sweet and sour” sounds good in English, and “sour cherries” doesn’t sound bad, but “sour carrots” does. Even “tart carrots” doesn’t quite cut it. So I go for the fun epithet lemony.
