Delia's Pork Chops with a Confit of Prunes, Apples and Shallots

By Helen
Main Ingredients:

• Pork chops
• Pint of dry cider and cider vinegar
• Cooking apple
• Tinned prunes
• Shallots

Pork chops. Flour, salt and pepper, fried in butter and oil. Done.

Now onto the good bit - a bubbling pan of sliced Bramley apple, dry cider, prunes, brown sugar, ground cloves,  shallots and cider vinegar. Half mulled wine, half apple sauce, it simmered down over the course of an hour into a rough chutney which is apparently also good with pork pate or duck.

The rest of the cider was then reduced in the frying pan as a glaze, but to be honest it would have been easier and quicker just to drink it.

Sweet, sticky prunes, tender shallots and lots of lovely gravy for the mashed potatoes AS WELL as the traditional apple sauce - finally we've matched a meal to exactly the right time of year.

The meat itself was pretty nondescript but it didn't take much extra expenditure to make them much more memorable (£2.48 a head).

Best for...  A bright, mild day at the end of October (and the only day this week we have time to cook)
Taken from... Delia Smith - How To Cook: Book Two
Chris says... Very rich and so won't suit every palate, but tasted great and wouldn't look out of place at dinner party.