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Special pork chops with herbs and white wine recipe

fennel seedWhen I started buying my meat from Fred Fitzpatrick (Butcher, Exning Road, Newmarket) we began to eat chops regularly. His pork chops are chunky and cheap and his lamb chops are an absolute bargain compared wth supermarkets. All his meat has much more flavour. Fred clearly has a great eye for selecting the best.

We discovered a good recipe in Nigel Slater’s The 30 minute Cook. Pork chops with tarragon and white wine. Danny is a creative cook and his recipe has evolved over the past few years. It is also quite a handy recipe for me as it guarantees time off from cooking. All I have to do is suggest that we try a new method of cooking pork chops and D is in the kitchen within seconds.

The recipe is simple and chic. Delicious with creamed potatoes, carrots and runner beans.

Special Pork chops with herbs and white wine recipe

Ingredients:

  • 2 decent sized pork chops
  • 1 heaped teaspoonful of dry tarragon (or a tablespoon of chopped fresh French tarragon)
  • 10 dried myrtle leaves, diced. (you can find these in the cooks section in Waitrose)
  • 8 fennel seeds
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 1 large glass of dry white wine

Method:

  1. Gently heat the olive oil in your frying pan and add the herbs, a litte salt and some ground back pepper. Use a very low setting. Our ring settings are graduated 1-9. We use setting 1 for these chops so it may take 5 to 7 minutes for things to heat up.
  2. Pop in the chops and fry them for 15 minutes on each side.
  3. Add the glass of wine and cover the frying pan. Simmer the chops for 5 minutes (same heat seting).
  4. Remove the chops to a warm place and reduce the sauce by simmering.
  5. Danny added this tip: iIf the sauce becomes dry, a little carrot water is better than adding more wine (carrot water is great when making gravy. But this is another post!)

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7 Comments

  1. Fiona Nevile

    Thanks for the tip, Food Lover. There are a lot of happy pigs in East Anglia. I must check out Waitrose and also find out where Fred gets his pork from and what breeds he buys.

  2. food lover

    Great ideas for fab pork. Wondered if anyone had tried the Hampshire Free Range Pork that I bought this weekend at Waitrose – their meat is not like other supermarkets which seems to be mostly imported and then has no flavour. This Hampshire pork tastes like pork used to be with a good bit of marbling which makes it a really moist pork. The man behind the counter also said that they had been working with a local farmer in east Anglia on some Berkshire pigs which I am trying to hunt down where they stock it.
    happy cooking!

  3. Fiona Nevile

    Hi Pat,

    Tarragon and pork are a great combination. I havent forgotten your seeds, they are not redy yet.

    Hi Sara,

    Danny says that he’d love to develop recpes for a pork cookbook.

    Hi Amanda,

    So pleased that you had a good walk and found blackberries. I love a good crumble!

    Hi Celia,

    Glad that the belly of pork worked well for you. The apple and fennel trimmings sound like a good twist.

    Lucky you with your own myrtle bush. I bought a baby bush but it keeled over. D uses it a lot with pork.

  4. Hi Fiona – I must check out that butcher next time I’m in Newmarket.
    Inspired by your pork and plums recipe I bought some Gloucester Old Spot belly pork yesterday and cooked it for 4 hours over a mix of apples, Vic plums and fennel (stalks and leaves – trimmings from the florence fennel we had on Thursday) it was DELICIOUS!!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

    By the way – we have a flourishing myrtle bush in the garden, I must check out uses for the leaves. Bunny Guiness on Gardeners’ Question Time advised nibbling a leaf or two – it makes your pee smell of violets!!!! Apparently.

  5. Thank goodness our dinner is nearly ready. The veggies are just steaming as I type. This sounds yummy indeed! We’ve had a wonderful walk. Found lots of blackberries and sloes. Blackberry and apple crumble in the oven for pudding… Hope you’re okay. x

  6. farmingfriends

    Sounds delicious. You could write a recipe book of Pork recipes from the Cottage Smallholder!
    Sara from farmingfriends

  7. Sounds lovely!!!! And you have now got me very very hungry!!!

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