The Cottage Smallholder


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Pork Chops with Tarragon and Elderflower cordial recipe

Photo: Pork Chops with Tarragon and Elderflower

Photo: Pork Chops with Tarragon and Elderflower

We don’t drink wine very much these days so we tend not to have wine hanging about in the kitchen for cooking. Danny developed a great pork chop recipe  so as a treat I grabbed a litre wine box in the supermarket. There was a yelp when he finally opened the box and turned on the tap. I had bought red wine rather than white.
“Well why don’t you try using some of my Elderflower and Lemon cordial?”
He adds this cordial to roast chicken.

He created a superb sauce, adding some cream at the end to thicken it. But he forgot to write down the ingredients.

Last night he returned home from the condemned food section of Tesco with 12 pork chops. Spaghetti bolognaise was on the menu. If D doesn’t fancy my choice he says nothing just returns home with “an alternative” and also offers to cook. So I get to eat something different and enjoy a night off from cooking. In the past just the word “Quiche” had him fumbling for his car keys.

Last night he had to work and looked so tired  that I popped the spag bol in the freezer and cooked the chops. The sauce was lovely, fragrant and sparky – perfect for a summer’s evening.

If you are using plain elderflower cordial you need to add a half teaspoonful of lemon juice.

Pork Chops with Tarragon and Elderflower Cordial recipe

Ingredients:

  • Two chunky pork chops
  • 1 tbsp of lemon and elderflower cordial/ or ordinary elderflower cordial and a dash of fresh lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp of water
  • 1 tsp of dried tarragon (or 1 tbsp of fresh chopped tarragon)
  • 1 pinch of salt
  • 1 pinch of mace
  • 1 pinch of cayenne pepper
  • Half a tsp of garlic chopped very fine
  • 2 tsp of olive oil

Method:

  1. Heat the oil gently in a frying pan.
  2. Add the pork chops and the rest of the ingredients.
  3. Cook gently for 14 minutes in an open pan and then turn the chops and cook for a further 14 minutes lid on (this will help imbue the chops with the flavour of the sauce). Finish off the chops for 30 seconds under a hot grill, pour over the sauce and serve with crisp green vegetables and mashed potatoes.

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8 Comments

  1. Hi Fiona

    Thank you so much for that – it’s now on order. It cost £50 with p & p but still £75 cheaper than Mahu Liisa.

    Interesting, hubby rang a company about the Mahgu Liisa and was told that they are made in Finland and that they had dropped the mould (presumably ‘they’ = someone in Finland)and it takes 3 months to make a new one! As the season will be over by then they won’t get any more in stock till next summer. He also said that people who had bought alluminium juice steamers came back and bought a stainless steel one! I can imagine what an allu one would do to the juice (or vice versa).

    Anyway thank you again and for emailing it to make sure I got it. You picked a good time of the year to be off work if you have to have time off!

  2. Fiona Nevile

    Hello Recipe Cooker

    Great idea to use this method with chicken.

    Hi KarenO

    Good news, unable to sleep last night I was pottering on the Westfalia site and spotted this
    juice steamer
    http://www2.westfalia.net/shops/household/boiling_down/juicing/juicers/320475-stainless_steel_juicer_9_litre.htm for £44.00.

  3. ps these chops sound delicious too – looking forward to trying them, I have masses of elderflower cordial.

  4. Look forward to your recipe for cordial with lemon balm. Have just read your blog about juice steamers and am kicking myself. When you posted about them last year I looked and could have got 1 for £36 but decided that you can’t keep on buying things just because you fancy them or someone else thinks they’re good. Now having read your update and the comments from everyone I’ve decided I would find one so useful!! Never mind I’ll keep an eye out for one reduced to a sensible price and hope they come back on sale somewhere. Hope you’re feeling better – it’s a long time to ‘sort you out’ isn’t it.

  5. recipe cooker

    It look delicious. I’m going to cook it now with chicken. Thanks.

  6. Fiona Nevile

    Hi SOL

    Yes it would be great with chicken.

    The spare room sounds good. Can’t wait to be up and about with a paintbrush again.

    Hello Joanna

    I wonder if you could buy dried elderfowers on the internet? We use tarragon a lot – grow French tarragon in the garden.

    I’m not sure what meadowsweet tastes like. I’m going to make cordial out of lemon balm – it’s supposed to be delicious.

  7. sounds wonderful now all I have to do is find elderflower and tarragon. Oh well must find some alternatives – I wonder if meadowsweet would make a similar cordial to elderflower

  8. I could use this with chicken couldnt I? We dont eat pork, as I cant stand the smell of it.

    On a different note, we have just painted our spare room, morning light, dulux, light and space range. Other than it stinks to high heaven and the smell still hasnt gone down much. The cover and the colour is divine.

    Thanks for the tip Fiona. Hope you are still on the mend.

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