Main Ingredients:
- 4x Pork chops
- Carrots, butternut squash and potatoes
- Leeks and cabbage
- Salt, pepper, sugar, juniper berries and bay leaves
This is the first recipe in a while that I got properly excited about and it turned out to be one of the best yet. As an avid fan of bacon, the name of this recipe jumped out at me as a challenge that had to be accepted and, overnight curing aside, this was quite straightforward.
Four normal pork chops were cured in a mixture that was 2/3 salt and 1/3 sugar. Shredded bay leaves, crushed juniper berries and ground black pepper was added for a bit of variety, but little of that was noticeable at the end. After roughly 24 hours in the fridge, the salt had drawn much of moisture out of the chops and it was washed off.
The chops were then grilled for six minutes on each side and served with three-root mash and some lovely buttery greens, as suggested. I was initially worried that the chops would be too dry without gravy, and bought a jar of wholegrain mustard to accompany the chops. We didn't even open it, and I'm a massive fan of mustard.
This has to go down as one of the tastiest and most satisfying meals I've done so far, with the tangy, salty pork being perfectly complimented by the sweet mash, which was topped with nutmeg (a seemingly left-field suggestion, which really paid off).
At £2.36 a head, this was very reasonable, and I'd say you can leave out the juniper berries if you don't already have them and you won't miss much.
If you've got the time to do it, I definitely recommend giving this a try - Like bacon? You'll love this!
Best for... Bacon lovers who are willing to try something a little different.Taken from... Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall - River Cottage Every Day
Helen says... Really tasty, not too fussy and worth all the effort
As somoene who had the pleasure of trying this - the food and the evening was a great success! X Anna
ReplyDelete