Spicy Stuffed Pork Roll Ups

At our recent trip to Waldrep's Meat Processing in Ellijay we purchased a package of smoked pork chops. They looked very thin cut in the shrink wrapped package but I didn't think much about it at the time. When I got home I saw they were really thin, almost as thin as bacon. I wondered what to do with them?

Since the chops were so thin I decided to marinate them so they wouldn't dry out when I cooked them. I blended coriander, cardamom, cloves, garlic powder, allspice, dried ginger, cinnamon, salt, pepper, and red pepper flakes along with two tablespoons of dark brown sugar, apple cider vinegar and olive oil. I put them into a glass baking dish, tossed them gently in the marinade, and refrigerated them overnight.

Then I thought to myself what can I make with these thin strips of pork. I thought of stuffing them with a rice mixture. Low and behold I read there is such a thing as pork roll ups. Never heard of them before, never made them, but that's what I was going to make. I took the chops out of the refrigerator to get them to room temperature and drained the largest ones on a open weave trivet.

While the pork was draining I cooked some wild rice. While the rice was cooking I sauteed one quarter of an onion and one red bell pepper chopped fine. While those were sauteing I chopped 1/4 cup of almonds, and grated one quarter cup of Parmesan cheese. I added all the ingredients except the pork to the rice after the rice had cooled slightly.

Next I placed a small amount of the rice mixture on each piece of pork and rolled it up and secured it with a couple of toothpicks inserted on an angle. I sauteed them in a medium hot cast iron frying pan turning them once to brown both sides.

Oh my goodness these Spicy Stuffed Pork Roll Ups are delicious. I put the remaining pork slices too small to use as roll ups in a glass baking dish topped with the extra rice mixture then topped it all with more of the pork bits and poured the marinade over the top. I baked this mixture in a 400 F oven for 25 minutes. Either way these are spicy hot in a good way and so wonderful. The mixture in the glass baking dish was much hotter due to all the marinade I poured over it. It will definitely clean out your sinuses. Be well.