Hot Fun In The Summertime

 Don't you love it when school is over  and you wake to a bright sunny morning.  All my little neighbors were out early and I could hear the sounds of kid giggles and play while I had my first cup of coffee.  I love starting the day on the porch with my caffeine fix, a little music, (Summer music here) and children sounds.  The dog, Shelby, sits with me occasionally and she enjoys it too. ( Well, since she  figured out that rocking chairs and dog tails don't really mix she likes it,)

 Oh my goodness, what a glorious day! The perfect day for a little work in the yard, a little laundry,  some general tidying, lunch out with The Hub and Son2 and then little pool time.  With high's in the upper 80's and just a few clouds in sight it was  more than wonderful

After a day like this it only seemed fitting to throw something on the grill for supper.  The only catch was that it had to taste like summer time.  A few days ago I was at The Pig and they had very thin pork steaks for $1.59 a pound.  I bought a few packs and froze most of them, but still had 4 steaks sitting in the fridge.  A quick look through a couple of cookbooks gave me the bones of this marinade, which I altered to fit what I had on hand. Nothing says summer like food from the islands, right?

                                                                    Cuban Pork Steaks

1/2 cup pineapple juice
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ginger, ground
1/4 teaspoon allspice, ground
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 or 2 serrano  peppers diced  whole or ribs and seeds removed ( depends on your personal "heat" tolerance)
1 large onion, sliced
1 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored and quartered

Mix all the ingredients in a large baking pan and let sit for about 15 minutes for the flavors to meld.  Remove the pineapple and onion slices to a separate dish.  Put the pork steaks in the marinade and let sit for 30 minutes, turning once midway through. ( Use tongs for turning so the steak surface will not be pierced)

 About 5 minutes before you are going to cook the pork, oil the pineapple quarters and the onion slices and put them on the grill.   It takes a little longer to cook them so this should assure everything is ready at the same time.

Grill  the pork on a hot grill, cover and turn the heat down immediately. (If cooking on a charcoal grill build the fire on one side.  Sear on the hot side of the grill  then put the steaks on the other side to finish cooking.)  Turn after about 5 minutes and cook until done.  It took me about 8 minutes total cooking time, but as I said, these were very thin steaks.

Serve  as soon as they have cooked through.  Don't pour the leftover marinade over the pork to keep cross contamination form happening.  Trust me, you won't need it.  This packs so much flavor into the meat and it is almost fork tender. Try it and you might just have a new family favorite.  We loved it and will put it in our bi-weekly rotation for the summer.  The only thing that could make this better might be a Cuba Libre or Mojito while grilling it.